Dreadnought
by andrewjameswilliams
Summary: Story Complete A renegade scientist working with Ivan Vostok kidnaps Pete and transforms him into a living weapons system called Dreadnought. Chapter 13 & Epilogue up.
1. Abduction

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Dreadnought

Chapter One: The Abduction

The laboratory was dark, only illuminated by the glow of active computer screens and the glow of a bench light over the solitary workstation. A middle-aged man stood over the bench examining with gratification the devices laid out on the table before him. A grim smile crossed his features. _Finally after all these years my day of vengeance approaches,_ he though with gratification. Soon he would have his vengeance on N'Tek for they way they'd treated him and his genius. But first he needed someone whom his invention could use as a host. It had to be someone young and physically fit otherwise they would have no chance of getting past N'Tek's agents or security systems.

And he knew just the place to get a host, but first he had a call to make.

*****

****

Del Oro Bay

Next Evening

Pete Costas left the ice ring still feeling a little sick. That was the last time he was going to let Josh and Laura talk him into going ice-skating with them. He'd ended up taking a series of nasty tumbles, which left him feeling a little sick and wobbly on his feet. So he'd decided to leave. Josh had offered to drive him home but Pete could tell that both Josh and Laura wanted to stay and skate for awhile longer so he'd refused Josh's offer of a lift and said he'd walk home, which would clear his head. His home was not far from the ice ring that formed a part of the huge facility that was the Del Oro Sports Pavilion. A facility that included a fully equipped gym - that was very popular with the local bodybuilding crowd, a climbing centre, swimming pools, two stadiums one for baseball the other for football, bike track and dozens of other facilities that catered for all sorts of people regardless of their sporting abilities or fitness level. And at any rate crime was low in Del Oro - unlike in most metropolitan cities – he was very unlikely to get mugged or anything like that.

As he walked along the streets Pete could already feel his head clear and the sickness to abate thanks to the cool fresh air being blown in from the pacific by a light wind that carried it lightly down the wide streets and boulevards of Del Oro.

Pete stepped out of the side street that led to the Sports Pavilion into one of the wide tree lined boulevards that ran the entire length of the city. Turning westwards her started down the road ignoring the uninterrupted view of the bay from which the city took its name and the distant red height marker beacons at the top of the central tower of the N'Tek Headquarters complex out in the bay itself. He had seen the view enough times - having been born and bred here to have become almost immune to it.

After awhile he turned off the boulevard and started down the road that took him right into the heart of his own neighbourhood. As was normal at this time of night the street was quiet with the only sign of life being the lights glowing in some people's windows.

Abruptly powerful arms grabbed him from behind. Before he could react a damp cloth smelling of chloroform was placed over his mouth and nose. Pete tried not to inhale but he was too late, his eyes rolled backwards and he collapsed back unconscious, only the powerful grip of his attacker preventing him from collapsing into an unconscious heap on the floor.

Calmly the attacker dropped the chloroform soaked hanky into his pocket and hoisted the unconscious teenager over his shoulder in a fireman's lift. Then he carried him without effort back to the black van that had brought him here. Phase one was completed. Dr Ironstone and Mr Vostok were going to be very pleased.

*****

Josh McGrath and Laura Chen got back to Josh's beach side home a few hours later. As soon as they got inside Laura dropped her skating shoes on the floor and threw her arms around her boyfriend's neck.

"Hmm that was fun," she said looking deep into his hazel-brown eyes. "We should do it more often."

"Yes it was. And yes we should," Josh agreed picking Laura up and spinning her around. Laura laughed delightedly. Josh lowered her to the ground and they kissed deeply. As they pulled away Laura abruptly thought of Pete.

"We should call Pete see if he's okay," she said. Josh nodded agreement.

"Yeah we should he did take some nasty falls. He should have let me drive him home." Laura nodded agreement.

"Yeah but you know Pete. Sometimes he's to stubborn for his own good." Josh laughed as he moved over to the phone. Picking up the handset he dialled in the familiar number and waited a moment while the phone rang.

"Hello," a female voice said over the handset. Josh recognised her as Amanda Costas, Pete's mother.

"Amanda it's Josh can I speak to Pete please?"

"I thought he was skating with you?" Amanda replied. Josh frowned in surprise and concern.

"He was but he wasn't feeling well he left to come home hours ago."

"Well he never got here," Amanda replied starting to sound concerned. "Can you go out looking for him Josh? Jacob isn't back for Chicago yet."

"Of course I'll go look for him," Josh replied in mounting concern. Laura came over concern on her own face.

"Thanks Josh."

"Not a problem I'll call you as soon as I get back. Try not to worry too much. He's probably just fallen somewhere, or gone and got himself lost."

"I'll try." With that Amanda put the phone down. Josh put down his own handset and turned to look at Laura to find her looking back at him in equal concern. She'd heard what Amanda had said to Josh. It was always a mystery to Josh how she could hear so well - she didn't have his nanotech-enhanced hearing - but it was surprising what she could hear if she was in reasonably close proximity. 

"Maybe we should have insisted you drive him home," Laura said worriedly.

"Maybe. Let's get going see what trouble he's got himself into this time. Though I doubt it could be as bad as last time."

"Why what happened last time?" Laura asked as she followed Josh over to the door. Josh picked his keys up from where he'd put them down on the hallway table.

"Pete stowed away on the Hawk," Josh explained. "He'd overheard me talking to Berto and knew I was going on a mission. So he decided to tag along. He knew I would never allow him to so he stowed away."

"Figures," Laura said shaking her head while simultaneously enjoying the fact that Josh now talked openly with her about his double life as a secret agent. Only a few months ago it would have been impossible for him to discuss it with her because then she hadn't known about his double identity or his awesome nanotech powers hadn't known that Josh McGrath and Max Steel were one and the same. With a look of concern on her face Laura followed Josh out of the beach house and they went in search of Pete.


	2. Transformation

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Dreadnought

Chapter Two: Transformation

Vostok Base

Pete Costas groaned as he woke up. His head was pounding like he had the mother of all hangovers. His eyes still closed Pete took careful stock of his surroundings. He was completely naked and lying on something cold and hard, his wrists, ankles and waist were held down by cold metal. There were narrow gaps in whatever it was he was lying on. Gaps around his neck, down his back and around his hamstrings and calves. _Oh no not this again,_ he thought realising that he had been abducted yet again. 

Already knowing that he wasn't going to like what he would see Pete opened his eyes and promptly regretted it as the light sent white-hot needles of pain shooting down his optic nerves. He immediately closed his eyes again and groaned.

"Ah you're awake at last," a cold male voice said as footsteps came over. Cautiously Pete opened his eyes again. Though the light still caused him some pain it was not so bad this time and he was able to make out that he was lying on a metal table in what was obviously some kind of lab/surgical room. A middle-aged man with a weather beaten face and curly whitish-grey hair appeared over him. And Pete shivered. This man's blue eyes were colder than arctic ice yet also burned with an inner hatred and controlled madness. They gave Pete the creeps.

"Who are you?" Pete demanded struggling against his restraints. "Where am I?"

"Who we are and where you are is of no consequence," a new voice with a pronounced Russian accent said. A grey haired man in a sleek, smart business suit came up to the bed/table. "All that matters," the man continued. "Is that you are going to be very useful to us." Pete shook his head.

"I won't help you."

"You won't have a choice," the Russian replied with an evil grin. "Your going to destroy N'Tek for us whether you want to or not." Pete laughed, he recognised the man now from television news reports and from some things that Josh had told him.

"What's the matter Mr Vostok. N'Tek kicked your but once to often." The older man looked surprised for a moment.

"So you know my name," the Russian said. "That won't help you."

"I must begin the procedure now Ivan," the first man said.

"Very well get on with it," Vostok told the man. "I look forward to seeing the results." With that he turned and walked away. The first man walked away also but only for a few moments. Then he returned with a surgical trolley, which was covered with strange pieces of equipment, and a woman in dark glasses wearing a surgical gown. She to was pulling a trolley on which sat a tray of drugs and more traditional surgical equipment.

"What are you going to do to me?" Pete demanded.

"Simple were going to change you," the man replied. "Unfortunately you have to be conscious for the procedure otherwise you would not have woken up at all."

"Change me? Into what?"

"That does not concern you."

"Like hell it does." The man didn't reply at least not verbally. Instead he merely placed picked up two identical devices and placed one on each of Pete's temples. Pete tried to violently move his head to shake them off but they were stuck tight.

"Don't waste your energy," the woman said. "You cannot remove them. No matter how much you struggle." Pete merely glared at her as the man placed more devices and placed them on Pete's arms, chest, and thighs. Then he went over to a control panel on the other side of the room and manipulated a control.

Abruptly Pete felt himself being jerked up into the air. The table he was lying on rotated one hundred and eighty degrees and suddenly he found himself facing the floor. The table stopped dead and Pete heard the sound of approaching footsteps. After a moment he felt more devices being placed against his skin at the nape of his neck, down his back and on his hamstrings and calves. Then the table rotated again and he was once more looking up at the man who was now holding a slim metallic object that was definitely a control pad of some kind. The man smiled at him evilly.

"Say good buy to your life as a free individual Mr Costas," he said in that cold voice of his. Pete frowned what did he mean by that? Then the man pressed a button on the control pad and he found out.

The devices that the man had placed on Pete's body lit up and abruptly Pete felt a searing, burning, stabbing pain tear at his sanity. Face contorting in agony Pete screamed, as he had never screamed in his life before. The pain was unbelievable. It began to feel like his whole body was on fire, and then there was another feeling. A feeling he couldn't describe as if something sharp and hard was crawling over his skin bringing along with it yet more pain.

That was when Pete felt something enter his mind, something cold and mechanical, something that pushed him right back into a corner of his own mind. Almost all sensation vanished he could see what was going on and he could hear what was going on, but other than that he could feel nothing. No pain, not even the pressure of his skin against the cold metal table. Nothing.

"Good," he heard the scientist say. "Phase one has been completed. State your identity and status."

"Dreadnought prototype one," Pete heard himself say. But his voice was cold without feeling, without humanity, it sounded almost mechanical. "Current status basic functions operational. Primary and ancillary functions currently unavailable." Pete wondered what on Earth a dreadnought unit was, he tried to open his mouth to speak but found he was unable to. Desperately he tried to look around or to move his hand. Nothing. He had absolutely no control over his body at all.

"Excellent," the scientist said. "Release yourself from your restraints and stand up." Pete noted a jolt and abruptly he was sitting up. Had he been able to do so he would have gasped, his entire body was covered with slender stips of pale grey metal interlaced with a delicate pattern of circuitry and with plugs everywhere. He watched helplessly as his hands reached out and effortlessly ripped the clamps securing his waist and feet off the table. Then his legs – or what had been his legs – was swung over the side and he stood up and stared straight ahead unblinking. The scientist smiled.

"Excellent. What do you think Mr Vostok."

"Impressive doctor," Ivan Vostok said walking back over from the door where he'd been standing watching the proceedings. "But is dreadnought going to be able to take on N'Tek and defeat them. I grow tired of their interference in my affairs."

"Not at the moment," the scientist admitted. "Only the first phase has been completed. There are two more to go before we can even think about sending dreadnought into combat particularly against such a well armed and equiped opponent as N'Tek particularly the superhuman agent of theirs - what his name again?"

"Max Steel," Vostok supplied. _I wonder what they want with Max_, Pete thought, _are they after the max probes as well._

"Yes Mr Steel. He should be able to defeat Mr Steel for us and possibly steal a couple of those nanoprobes of his. Particularly if we catch him where he's most vulnerable whereever that is."

"I know," Pete heard himself say.

"What do you know dreadnought?" Vostok asked.

"Max Steel is an illusion, an artificial persona. He does not really exist outside of a computer. He is a cover identity and appearance for someone else." Pete realising what was coming struck out at what felt like the barrier in his mind intending to break it down and stop this machine-thing he'd become from telling them about Josh. It did no good. The barrier threw him back hard. So he just struck again harder - only to once again be thrown back.

In the meantime unaware of what was going on Vostok and the scientist exchanged an intrigued glance. This was something they'd not counted on, they had never considered the possibility that dreadnoughts host might have knowledge of N'Tek and its super agent that they didn't have.

"Who is he really then? And where is he most vulnerable?" Vostok asked intrigued at all the possibilities that he could see suddenly opening up. If they could find out exactly where Max Steel - or whoever he really was - was most vulnerable then maybe just maybe they could capture him and steal some of his nanoprobes. Vostok imagined the price they would bring on the open market. It would be astronomical. No government in the world - even the US government - possessed nanotech as advanced as the MX technology, they would all want it. Nanotech that advanced would bring about a whole new generation of weapons.

"His real name is Josh McGrath," dreadnought responded. Ivan's eyes went wide in astonishment.

"McGrath. Josh McGrath," he repeated. "As in the son of my late nemesis Jim McGrath and stepson of Jefferson Smith?"

"Yes." Ivan Vostok laughed as he imagined the look on the Jefferson Smith's face when Josh had asked to join N'Tek. He imagined that Smith would have been dead set against it but knowing full well it would be coming. All their pyscology reports on Josh McGrath confirmed that the boy was practicaly a carbon copy of his father in terms of personality.

"Oh how delightful," Ivan said still laughing. "I imagine Smith must have been having kittens when Josh asked to join up. So where is Mr McGrath most vulnerable?"

"He is most vulnerable on the Del Oro University Campus." _Josh please forgive me,_ Pete thought from his mental prison. _I can't stop myself. Forgive me for telling these guys you're secret. I never meant to betray you're trust._

"This is all very interesting," he heard the scientist say. "But we must begin the second phase now Mr Vostok."

"Very well proceed doctor," Ivan replied with a sigh. "Once all the required phases are complete send dreadnought on that initial test mission we discussed."

"Yes Mr Vostok." With that Ivan Vostok turned and left the room for good this time. Pete paid little attention as the scientist gave an order to his machine-self and the machine started across the room towards a large cocoon-like chamber on the other side of the room. The chamber opened at his approach and Pete felt himself climb in and turn around just as the chamber closed. _Josh,_ Pete thought even though he knew that Josh would not hear - Josh was many things but psychic wasn't one of them but still he thought it, _when you do encounter the monster that this madman has changed me into please kill me, I know that you can. It's the only thing that you can do for me now. Kill me._


	3. Trial Run

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Dreadnought

Chapter Three: Trial Run

Cybernet Computers

Silicon Valley, Two Days Later

All was quiet outside the Cybernet Computers plant in that part of California known as Silicon Valley for the profusion of computer manufacturers and other high tech industries in the place. Two bored security guards patrolled the perimeter of the plant, which manufactured vital computer components for the US military. They were unaware that they were being watched from the shadows.

Helpless within his mental prison Pete was aware of his machine self - Dreadnought as Ivan Vostok and that mad scientist Dr Karland called it - sizing up the two guards that were patrolling the perimeter taking note of the heavy Rubana laser carbines that they carried. Pete wished that the guards would spot him and fire it would be a release from this hell. He was constantly aware of what was going on except when Vostok powered down the Dreadnought systems then he knew nothing but darkness and time. Which was in fact worse than when Dreadnought was active at least when Dreadnought was active Pete could at least see what was going on around him even if he had no control over anything. When Dreadnought was inactive sensory depravation was total.

The appearance of targeting graphics over his vision caught Pete's attention and he was abruptly aware of his right arm and the heavy plasma-pulse cannon mounted their brought to bear on the guards. Knowing what was coming Pete desperately struck at the mental barrier. The barrier flickered slightly but held so Pete struck again to be thrown back. Undeterred he struck again and again trying to break a hole in the mental wall so he could stop himself from firing. It did no good.

Pete cried out in horror inside his mental prison as the arm cannon fired two glaring blue white streaks of hellfire at the two guards both guards flashed to vapour before they even registered they were under attack. _My fault, my fault_, Pete thought_, I should be stronger than this, I should be able to break this barrier. I must find away. I must. Before Vostok uses me to kill someone else._

He was aware that he was walking forward towards the door. The was closed so the plasma cannon fired again blasting it off its hinges. Pete paid little attention to what was going on as his machine self walked the empty corridors of the building towards the main vault. He hoped that he encountered no one, he couldn't bear to see himself murder someone else.

His prayer was answered he encountered no one as he moved through the building. Within a few minutes he was standing before the vault. Despite himself Pete was curious what could Ivan Vostok want here. His left arm rose and a heavy cutting laser deployed from a slot in the armour. Target graphics appeared again and the laser activated sending a slender but powerful red beam into the tough metal of the door. The paint immediately blistered and a small circle of metal began to melt.

Within a few moments Dreadnought had lasered its way through the outer door and was moving through to the much more flimsy inner door. Pete wasn't surprised when a single kick from his machine self-brought it down.

The vault was empty save for one thing. Sitting on a pedestal surrounded by a cylindrical force field was a narrow rectangular box-like device with a military serial number on the side. Pete wondered what on Earth it was and what Vostok wanted with it.

A slot on his shoulder opened and a small device rose out of its normal docking position. A slender line of multicoloured light shot out and hit the force field, which immediately began to dissolve. Within seconds it was gone.

Dreadnought moved calmly toward the now defenceless object. As it approached lasers fired from slots around the wall of the circular room. Dreadnought's armour glowed softly at the impact points.

A damage schematic caught Pete's attention. Dreadnought's armour was being damaged by medium intensity laser fire. Heat sinks were compensating but they would be overloaded within a minute and the beams would start to burn through. Pete hoped that they did burn through all the armour and circuitry surrounding him. If even one beam got through it would kill him and set him free from this living hell.

But it wasn't to be. Dreadnought's tactical programs were already responding. The plasma cannon was once more brought to bear and fired repeated blasts at the attacking lasers. 

Within thirty seconds the automatic lasers had been disabled. Dreadnought moved towards the device once more, picked it up and placed it in a pack slung over his back. Then Dreadnought started walking once again retracing its path through the structure.

Once through the main doors he was confronted by a force of police cruisers and dozens of armed police officers. _Go away,_ Pete thought desperately knowing what was going to happen to the police officers, _get out of here. This machine-thing that I've become will kill you all. Get out of here please._

"On the ground now," a voice boosted by a loudspeaker said from the assembled fleet of cruisers. Dreadnought ignored the command and started walking forwards. After a moment a shot was fired hitting the ground just ahead of him in a clear warning. "On the ground now," the voice repeated.

Targeting graphics appeared over Pete's vision and had he been able to do so Pete would have closed his eyes. But he couldn't close his eyes, he had no choice but to see what was going to happen now. 

The plasma cannon was brought to bear on the lead police cruiser and fired. The cruiser exploded in a fiery ball catching and incinerating those officers crouching behind it. A hail of gunfire shot back at Dreadnought from the police only to bounce harmlessly off the armour chipping some small sparks but otherwise doing no damage. The plasma cannon fired again and again. With each shot another cruiser and those officers using it as shelter died. Only two cruisers remained now - the officers behind them ran as the plasma cannon fired upon the surviving cruisers obliterating them instantly.

Dreadnought lowered its plasma cannon turned and walked off into the night heading for its pickup point leaving the flaming wreckage of five police cruisers and the smouldering bodies of their occupents behind. Within his mental prison Pete wept silently for the dead and raged at his own inability to stop Dreadnought.


	4. A Living Weapon

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Dreadnought

Chapter Four: A Living Weapon

N'Tek Headquarters

Next Morning

Max Steel walked curiously down the corridors of the real N'Tek. He had no idea why he'd been called here - Berto hadn't said just that he should come over to N'Tek as quickly as possible - but he was grateful for the distraction. It would stop him worrying about Pete. Try as he might he could not stop thinking that something terrible had happened to him. Laura had confessed the same feeling. So had Pete's parents who were now besides themselves with worry and fear. The police, FBI and even N'Tek were looking now trying to find out what had happened to Pete. N'Tek not because terrorists were involved but simply for Max/Josh. Jefferson Smith had noted his sons worry and since the bulk of N'Tek's agents weren't doing anything at the moment - the worlds terrorist groups seemed to have decided to take a holiday for some reason - had assigned some of them to look into the matter. So far they'd come up with nothing - except the conclusion that whoever had kidnapped Pete was good, very good. And that made him worry even more. He did not fancy a repeat performance of the last time for example when Dread had kidnapped Pete to get at him.

He reached the briefing room a couple of minutes later. The regular members of Team Steel - Berto and Kat - were already there along with Chuck Marshak and Jake Nez. Heading up the meeting was his father and boss Jefferson Smith along with Rachel Leeds - who was still technically the leader of Team Steel though she now spent most of her time co-ordinating all field agent activities and training - the role once held by the traitor Mairot.

"Ah Max good," Jefferson said noticing him come in. "You took your time getting here though."

"Sorry," Max said apologetically as he claimed a seat. "Traffic was bad. There's been a road accident outside the university campus a lorry jack-knifed spreading a massive cargo of tomatoes all over the road. Real nightmare."

"Oh dear. I feel sorry for the tomatoes," Jake said with a laugh. 

"You would," Max replied with a laugh of his own. Everyone around the table - even the habitually serious Rachel - exploded into laughter.

Eventually after a few moments of laughter Jefferson brought the meeting to order. What they had to discuss about the latest developments concerning Ivan Vostok and his organisation were too important and too worrying to ignore.

"Okay people," he said in a commanding tone that immediately grabbed everyone's attention. "Moment of levity over. Let's get down to business." 

It took a few more seconds for everyone to bring themselves back together after cracking up like that - but when they did they gave Jeff their undivided attention all had caught the urgency in his tone and knew what it meant. What he had to say was not going to be good.

"It appears that our old nemesis Ivan Vostok is up to his old tricks again," Jefferson began. "Only this time he has a very powerful and very nasty new tool in his arsenal." He moved aside from the central podium and pressed a button on a small remote control pad. The man screen came to life showing a picture of what looked like somekind of humanoid machine. It was tall and very large - completely covered in somekind of grey-green armour that shimmered slightly. An infantry squad support plasma-pulse cannon was attached to its right arm. "This attacked the Cybernet Computers plant in Silicon Valley last night," Jefferson explained. "It stole a new missile navigation system under development there for the US military. In the process it killed two security guards and nearly twenty police officers."

"What is it?" Max asked.

"I've been reviewing our files of covert projects we have been asked to sponsor over the years," Rachel said leaning forward. "And we found a reference to this thing. It's called a Dreadnought unit."

"Basically Dreadnought is a weapons system that grafts onto a Human being," Jefferson said. "Fiercely powerful. It's practically a one man army."

"If it's so powerful then why didn't the government or the military fund the thing themselves?" Max asked.

"They were going to Max but they wanted us to check it over first," Jefferson replied. "They had some concerns about the project. Concerns that were soon proved right. You see when we reviewed the program we discovered a flaw in the Dreadnought system. In order to work effectively the Dreadnought system sapresses the personality of the host - making the host a prisoner in their own head. The only personality that is left is the machines program. Which has no conscience, no pity, nothing that makes a person Human."

"Leaving behind a killing machine. Isn't that what the military wants soldiers to be?"

"True. But the Dreadnought technology is far worse than a simple killing machine. In its own way it is alive - a living weapon - and it won't ever let the host go while it exists. And the host is aware of everything that is going on. It is the ultimate in torture. Even the most hawkish generals won't put people through that. So the program was cancelled.

"The Dreadnoughts creator - a Doctor Joseph Karland - was not happy. He didn't care about the cost to the host he only wanted the machine to exist. When the project was blocked he accused us - and the government - of conspiring to repress genius - you know the usual misunderstood genius routine. He swore revenge - then he disappeared."

"And teamed up with Vostok," Max finished.

"That is what our intelligence believes," Rachel agreed. "Apparently Dreadnought," she nodded at the big screen, "is a prototype. Grafted onto a fit but unwilling host. Who this host is we do not know. It is our belief that the theft of the weapons systems components was merely a test. Given Karland's anger towards us and Vostok's own desires to get rid of us it is very likely that Vostok will next use Dreadnought to strike at us."

"Then we have to destroy Dreadnought," Jake said softly.

"True but what about the host?" Berto asked. "If we blow Dreadnought up we'll be killing an innocent person."

"We'd be setting the host free," Chuck argued.

"Yes but what good is freedom if you're not alive to enjoy it," Max asked.

"There is another option besides destroying Dreadnought," Berto broke in. "We could use a modulated electromagnetic pulse to disable it. We could then remove the unit from the host body. There are a number of devices we could use. The device would have to be thrown at Dreadnought to insure success however. Which means close range engagement."  
"Which will be very dangerous," Rachel pointed out. "This thing is more dangerous than Psycho, Bioconstrictor, Vitriol, Electrix and L'Etranger put together."

"Well have to risk it," Max said. "If there is a chance of saving the pour sod that's inside that thing then we have to take it. No matter how dangerous. I don't know about any of you but I didn't join N'Tek to kill innocents if I could avoid it." Everyone around the table nodded in agreement. They'd all joined N'Tek to protect innocent lives not take them away.

"Then we will take the risk," Jefferson finalised. "We will disable Dreadnought if possible. But destroy it if necessary. Berto how long will it take you to come up with a portable EMP device."

"I don't need to," Berto answered. "I've been working on one. I designed it so we would have away of disabling Psycho if we ever get him in our sights long enough. It will not take more than a couple of hours to make ready and duplicate."

"Then see to it," Jefferson ordered. "Meeting adjourned."

Max left the meeting with the others. Though he didn't tell anyone he had the strangest feeling about Dreadnought's unwilling host. He had the feeling that he knew whoever it was - or had known him or her. But who was it. They would know soon enough - whenever Ivan Vostok sent Dreadnought to strike at them. 


	5. Dreadnought Strikes

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Dreadnought

Chapter Five: Dreadnought Strikes

Del Oro University Campus

Three Days Later

The unmarked lorry pulled up outside the university campus. Sitting in the driver's position in the cab dressed in clothes that made him look like any other trucker Joseph Karland smiled grimly. He was looking forward to this - getting his hands on some of N'Tek's nanoprobes would be relatively easy here. Here on the university campus Josh McGrath/Max Steel was vulnerable - more vulnerable than he was anywhere else because here he was confronted by the problem of hiding his powers from the student community on the campus. Here he couldn't respond to an attack from Dreadnought as he could elsewhere. But even if he could respond Karland was confident that he would be no match for a Dreadnought unit.

Opening the door Karland clambered out of the cab, went around to the back of the lorry, opened the rear door and climbed in. Sitting in front of him was the cocoon like transport container for Dreadnought. Besides the container was a small workstation from which he could monitor Dreadnoughts systems. After carefully closing the door behind him he opened the container.

Inside Dreadnought lay silent and inactive. Calmly he picked up Dreadnought's control pad from its storage slot and with an evil grin pressed one of the buttons there.

Sensory perception burst back upon Pete floating silently in the prison within his own mind. _Finally,_ he thought wondering how long Dreadnought had been inactive yet simultaneously dreading what he knew would be coming. Dreadnought being active again meant that Vostok had chosen another target. More people were going to die at his hands and he was so utterly powerless to prevent it. Before this hell had started he had never physically wanted to harm anyone - if you discounted that time a few years ago when he'd wanted to punch Josh on the nose for making a pass at his girlfriend, and the few times nearly two years ago no when he'd again wanted to punch Josh for causing Laura so much pain. Of course he'd later learned that he would have only gotten in one punch before Josh used that nanotech-enhanced strength of his to break him in half.

Pete abruptly became aware that Dreadnought was sitting up and climbing out of the transport cocoon that served as a source of power for all of Dreadnought's systems. A set of mission instructions appeared in the bottom corner of his vision and Pete felt a jolt of mixed horror and hope. Horror as he saw that the orders were to disable and capture Josh so that a sample of nanoprobes could be taken from him, hope that Josh would turn the tables on Dreadnought and destroy him releasing him from this living hell.

Karland was opening the lorry doors letting in the bright sunshine of a Californian morning. From the intensity of the light Pete guessed that it was probably around midmorning. Dreadnought began moving jumping out of the back of the lorry and starting for one of the entrances to the sprawling complex that was the university. Pete clung to the desperate hope that in the coming battle with Josh/Max that Dreadnought would be defeated and that he would be released from this hell and allowed to slip gratefully into death.

Josh McGrath wandered down a corridor in the literacy and humanities block of the university campus without enthusiasm for his next class. It was literature again - Professor Guerard would be going on about the Shakespeare play The Merchant of Venice that they were currently studying - and make it sound really boring. It wasn't that he disliked Shakespeare - it was just that he found the Old English it was written in hard to cope with at times - but at the moment he had other things on his mind. Like Pete still being missing without trace and now Vostok's new living weapon called Dreadnought. 

And then there was that strange feeling he'd had about Dreadnought ever since Dad had briefed him and the rest of Team Steel on the mobile intelligent weapons system that used a human as a host in order to achieve mobility. The feeling that the host was someone close to him or someone he had once known. Josh hadn't been able to shake the feeling and it was worrying him to death.

Static abruptly crackled in his ears as Berto activated the audio portion of the bio link.

"Hermano we've got trouble," Berto said immediately. Josh paused and glanced around to make sure no one was in earshot before responding.

"What kind of trouble bro," Josh asked.

"Our sensors have just picked up energy emissions outside the campus but coming in. They match the records of Dreadnoughts energy emissions recorded by Cybernet. The FBI gave us a copy."

"Dreadnoughts here?"

"So it would seem hermano. Dreadnoughts heading straight for the block your in, so I'm certain that your its target."

"Oh great. This place is full of innocents."

"I know. We've located a lorry parked outside the campus it seems Dreadnought came out of it. Kat, Marshak, Rachel and Jake are on their way to apprehend the driver and anyone else inside. Stopping Dreadnought is up to you. You have the EMP device I gave you right?"

"Yeah it's on my belt."

"Good. When you throw it at Dreadnought remember that the blast radius is around four meters. You have to get out of that range before the device detonates or it will knock your nanoprobes off line as well as Dreadnought."

"I do know Berto. I have no desire to get whacked by an EMP pulse. True the effect on my probes doesn't last very long but I feel lousy for hours afterwards." Berto chuckled softly.

"Good luck hermano."

"Thanks bro I'm going to need it. First things first lets get the students out of here."

"How?" Berto asked. Josh's eyes hit on the fire alarm box on the wall. "That'll work," Berto admitted.

Josh moved quickly over to the fire alarm box. With one quick punch he broke the glass and triggered the alarm. Immediately the air was filled with howling shrieking noise. Josh gringed he'd forgotten how loud that bloody alarm was. Quickly he nipped into the nearby storeroom and hit the morphing control on his bio link and felt the familiar warm pulse of energy shooting up his body as he was instantly transformed into Max Steel.

"Stay their hermano," Berto instructed him. "I'll tell you when Dreadnought enters your area." Max nodded as he heard the sound of shouting and running feet as students and lectures poured out of the classrooms and lecture halls in response to the fire alarm.

He waited for quiet some time. After a few moments the sounds of shouting and running feet had faded away as the students and staff evacuated. Now the only sounds he could hear was the wailing of the alarm. Max hoped that Dreadnought showed up soon as it wouldn't take long for campus security to figure out that the alarm was false and to start looking for the guilty culprit.

"Hermano," Berto called. "Dreadnought's just entered your section and is approaching from the right."

"Thanks bro," Max replied. "Time for a little stealth mode." Max hit one of the controls on his bio link and had anyone been watching they would have seen him literally vanish.

Quickly he opened the door, walked out into the corridor, turned to the right and came face to face with Dreadnought. The thing was even uglier in person than it was on the vidscreen. Dreadnought paused in its advance and began to sweep the area with a laser fan. Determined to get the first blow in before the fan detected him Max back-pedalled a bit then leapt into the air and delivered a powerful flying kick straight to Dreadnought's armoured torso, eliciting a sharp crack as some of the armour was cracked and knocking the man-machine thing staggering backwards off balance.

Pete was relieved that Dreadnought encountered no one as it wandered down the corridors of the humanities and literature block looking for Josh. He knew most of the people here and watching himself kill them if they encountered him would be even worse that watching himself kill people he didn't know. Fortunately Karland's timing had been good and he'd sent Dreadnought into the building just as a fire drill sounded.

Abruptly Dreadnought paused in its advance as it detected a momentary thermal emission ahead. Pete watched as a narrow laser fan appeared from the visor unit and began to sweep the area.

Suddenly Dreadnought was staggering backwards as something invisible and powerful slammed into the torso armour. Damage warnings appeared. The force of the impact had cracked the outer layers of armour and damaged some peripheral circuits. Pete could guess what the cause of the damage was. A second later his guess was proved right as the air ahead seemed to shimmer in the shape of a person and Max appeared. _Good move Josh,_ he thought as the shimmering yellow-green aura of turbo mode appeared around his friend's superhuman alter ego.

Pete watched helplessly as Dreadnought righted itself and charged forwards towards Max. Max stood waiting for the charge. As Dreadnought hit him Max allowed himself to be bowled over and used his body as a hinge to send Dreadnought flying through the air to smash into the floor halfway down the corridor. More damage warnings caught Pete's attention as Dreadnought clambered back to its feet. Several systems had been damaged by the shock of hitting the concrete floor so hard.

Determined to help his friend Pete lashed out at the mental barrier confining him. As before he was thrown back, but with less force this time. The damage to Dreadnought's systems having a knock on effect to all other systems. Encouraged Pete struck again and the barrier flickered and for the briefest instant he had access to Dreadnoughts command systems. Only to be immediately thrown back as programs built into the Dreadnought system came on line and shored up the mental barrier.

A sudden action of Max's caught Pete attention. Max had backed up a bit he noticed and had pulled a small device from a clip on his belt. Dreadnought started forwards towards Max just as he threw it and immediately back-pedalled rapidly.

The device Max had thrown smacked into Dreadnoughts torso and immediately detonated into a sphere of crackling energy that completely enveloped the machine-thing that he'd become.

Emergency warnings caught Pete's attention. Heavy EMP impact, systems were failing. Had he been capable of it at the moment Pete would have smiled even as all of Dreadnoughts systems went down and darkness enveloped him completely, not the terrible sensory deprivation of system power down - but the true darkness of unconsciousness. Pete gratefully gave himself up to the darkness and the freedom it brought.

Outside the campus in the transport Joseph Karland's jaw dropped open as he lost the feed from all of Dreadnoughts systems. For a few seconds he was stunned then he quickly began reviewing the last information feed and cursed. _Damn them,_ he thought as he read the information. Max had used somekind of portable EMP device to disable Dreadnought - completely disable. Every single system was off line. _He had to have known that Dreadnought was coming,_ he thought, _else why would he have a portable EMP generator on him? And why would he already be in Max mode waiting for Dreadnought if he didn't know. If N'Tek knew that we were coming then they have to know I'm here. Shit I better get out of here._

Leaping to his feet Karland hurried for the rear doors. Throwing them open he abruptly came face to face with the business ends of four laser rifles wielded by four serious looking N'Tek agents.

"Doctor Joseph Karland I presume," the blond haired female said in a cool, professional, British accented voice. "You're under arrest."

With a sigh of resignation Karland raised his hands above his head and jumped down out of the truck. As she watched Karland be placed in a set of stun cuff Rachel used her mobile phone to call Jefferson Smith.

"Mr Smith we've got Karland," she said.

"Excellent. You and Marshak escort Dr Karland to maximum security," Jefferson Smith ordered. "Max has just disabled Dreadnought. Send Kat and Jake into the campus to help move that thing. The local FBI office has contacted the campus priciple and have ordered an evacuation of the complex on a ruse that their might be a bomb. Their sending a team of agents to do just that. Berto's on his way with a truck to pick up Dreadnought."

"I understand."

"Keep me appraised," Jefferson ordered.

"Yes sir." Rachel ended the call, flipped the mobile closed and relayed the orders to her fellow agents. Kat and Jake hurried into the campus while Marshak manhandled a protesting Dr Karland into the car that had brought them here.


	6. A Truth Revealed

****

Dreadnought

Chapter Six: A Truth Revealed

Medical Section

N'Tek Headquarters

Drs Martinez and Yevshenko stood over the motionless form of Dr Karland's living weapon system; Dreadnought as he'd called it. Though the things systems were still completely off-line thanks to the discharge from Berto's EMP device they were taking no chances. The plasma cannon had been removed its docking slots on the right arm and Dreadnought was being held down by clamps made of a new ultralight but superstrong synthetic composite material that it would find impossible to break. When they'd first started testing them they'd used Max as a guinea pig to test their strength - after all Max was as strong if not stronger than most supervillains. The results had been very impressive - even in turbo mode and with good leverage Max had been unable to break the clamps or even weaken them. So they were convinced that the clamps would be able to hold Dreadnought. Though to be safe two agents armed with laser rifles stood near the door - after all they didn't know the machines strength.

Looking over the dormant machine Berto couldn't help but be impressed by it. The technological skill used to create Dreadnought was remarkable - but it saddened him to see such genius used in such a way. Twisting science to create a superpowerful weapons system that required a living host to graft onto and control in order to achieve mobility was appalling.

And it was for the host that they were now examining Dreadnought. Had Dreadnought simply been a machine they would have destroyed it by now - but Dreadnought was not just a machine - it was more, in addition to being a very sophisticated and mobile weapons system it was a prison for whomever it was bonded to.

"This is a remarkable peace of technology," Yevshenko commented. "Superb engineering."

"Yes," Berto agreed. "It is such a pity that the genius behind it was used in such away. To create a horror far worse than death for whoever the pour soul inside this thing is."

"We should get started," Yevshenko said. "Our scans show thick layers of armour and circuitry between us and the host. The host is still alive but he's getting weaker. If we don't remove this thing in the next ten hours then the host will die."

"He?" Berto questioned.

"The host is a young male," Yevshenko told him. "Around the same age as you and Max. But who he is I don't know."

"And we have only ten hours to save him. We better get cracking then. I think we're going to be burning the midnight oil on this one."  
"Burning the midnight oil I haven't heard that expression in years where'd you hear it?"

"Marshak. Or rather Max heard it and I heard through the bio link." Yevshenko chuckled.

"Alright lets get started," she said after a moment.

It took them nearly three hours to get through the layers of circuitry to the innermost layer of circuitry. The layer of circuitry that was placed directly on top of the host, enough circuitry had now been removed from them to use a specialised program to determine the host's physical appearance.

It was Yevshenko who ran the scan of the host to see if they could determine the hosts identity. The image of a familiar young man appeared on a side screen and Yevshenko's blood suddenly ran cold.

"Berto," she said softly. "You should see this."

"See what?" Berto asked as he turned to look at the monitor showing the hosts real appearance. 

When he saw who the host was he gasped and literally saw red. A sharp cascade of emotion raced through him a mixture of shock, disbelief and cold rage. Normally he was not a violent person but if Karland had been in the room with them - not locked up in maximum security - he would have grabbed a laser and sliced the man in half or more likely would have kept firing until nothing was left of the man but charred fragments. So great was his sudden anger and sense of personal insult.

"Pete," Berto hissed in a cool angry tone that didn't sound like his own voice. _God how's Max going to react,_ Berto thought, _he's even closer to Pete than me. He's known him since childhood. He's going to explode. I'd feel sorry for anyone who gets in his way when he's that mad. Even if the someone in question was Psycho._

"We'd better tell Smith," Yevshenko said.

"I'll do it," Berto replied after a moment getting his anger under control with a great deal of effort. "In the meantime can you run a more detailed scan. See just how integrated with Pete's body this Dreadnought technology is."

"Sure thing," Yevshenko agreed. "I just hope that the integration isn't to deep or to complex. Otherwise we'd have the most god awful task of separating Pete from Dreadnought in the time we have left." Berto nodded in agreement as he started over to the far side of the room where there was the nearest internal phone.

*****

Jefferson Smith slammed the phone back down on its cradle. Berto had just finished telling him who Dreadnoughts host was and he was absolutely livid. It had been bad enough that Karland had used an innocent person as a host for his diabolical creation, but that he'd actually gone and used Pete was even worse. And Jeff was willing to bet that it wasn't a coincidence that Pete had been chosen - it would be just like Vostok to do something like this, for it would be certain to get his Irish up. Vostok delighted in such things. Jefferson had no idea how Josh was going to react when he told him, no that was wrong he did know. Josh would be both insulted and angry. Make that very angry. He wouldn't go after Karland - he had too much self-control for that - but if Karland were to attempt an escape then Josh/Max would not hesitate to kill him.

"Who was that," Rachel Leeds asked noticing the thunderous expression on Jefferson's face and knowing full well that it meant trouble for someone - hopefully that someone would not be her.

"Berto. They know who Dreadnoughts host is."

"Who?" Jefferson looked straight at her and inside Rachel shuddered at the look of contained fury.

"Pete Costas." Rachel's eyes widened in shock and horror. _Oh shit Max is going to be well and truly pissed,_ she thought, _and I can't blame him._

"What!" she breathed. "Has anyone told Max yet?"

"No not yet. I'll do that. Rachel I want you to go into the city and bring Pete's parents here to N'Tek - tell them the truth and tell them exactly what has happened, they have the right to know. Especially as it is very possible that Pete could die before the Dreadnought technology is completely removed from his body." _I just hope that doesn't happen,_ Jefferson thought, _because I hate to think what Pete's death would do to Josh._ Rachel nodded and stood up.

"I'll leave at once," she said and left the room. She was grateful that she would not be the one to tell Max that his best friend - the one he'd known from childhood - had been used by Ivan Vostok and Joseph Karland as Dreadnoughts host.

Jefferson watched her leave, then he stood up and headed for the hidden lift that led straight down to the topmost levels of the real N'Tek.

A couple of minutes later he was walking down the corridors of the underground complex towards the Team Steel Operations room. The look of contained fury on his face deterred those agents he came across from speaking to him.

A moment later he walked into the empty ops room. Striding over to the console where Berto normally sat Jeff turned it on. The videoscreen flashed on and abruptly it seemed like he was in the driving seat of Josh's car. From the looks of it he was driving through heavy traffic towards one of the cities numerous shopping malls.

"Josh," Jefferson said into the microphone.

"Yes dad," Josh responded immediately sounding a little surprised that it was Jeff using the bio link to communicate with him not Berto.

"Josh get over here. There is news about Pete." The image on the vidscreen changed slightly so that Josh was now looking at Laura who was sitting in the passenger seat. Then the view turned back to looking through the car windshield.

"We'll be right there," Josh responded.

*****

****

A Short Time Later

Jefferson Smith looked up from the reports on his desk - which he wasn't really reading - at the sound of a knock. Jefferson took a deep breath, and let it out slowly - he knew who it would be.

"Come in," he called after a moment. 

The door opened and Josh came in and he wasn't alone. Jefferson wasn't surprised to see Laura in tow - he'd seen her when he'd called Josh and she'd been as worried about Pete as everyone. She would have insisted on coming over, not that Josh would do anything to stop her in this instance.

Jefferson smiled in grim greeting.

"Ah good your both here. That was quick."

"Yeah well you did say you had news about Pete," Laura reasoned. "And we were only a block away from the ferry terminal."

"Josh close the doors please," Jefferson instructed his son. Josh immediately did so. As soon as the doors were closed Jefferson reached under his desk and pressed a hidden control there. A metal shield abruptly blocked access to the doors. Additional shutters appeared over the windows. The overhead lights came on to compensate for the loss of sunlight. His father activating the office security isolation system surprised Josh - and filled him with a great sense of foreboding. Something wasn't right, really wasn't right, and that something involved Pete.

"What's going on dad," Josh asked turning to face his father. "Something bad has happened to Pete hasn't it?"

"Yes," Jefferson confirmed wondering exactly how he should broach this so that it would make sense to Laura. He looked at the beautiful Chinese girl who was regarding him with intelligence and great patience but with a faint hint of nervousness. "Did Josh tell you about Dreadnought." It wasn't really a question Jeff knew. Ever since Laura had learned the truth about who and what Josh was nearly a year ago - Josh had tended to tell her about what he got up to on missions. Particularly if it was something that bothered him. Jeff didn't mind Josh doing that, he knew that Laura would not tell anyone else.

"A little," Laura replied shivering as she recalled what Josh had told her about the biomechanical weapons system that bonded to a Human being. "Enough that I'm glad you stopped that thing."

"Dad what does Dreadnought have to do with Pete," Josh asked then the realisation dawned. "Your not saying…" he started to say.

"Pete is Dreadnoughts host," Jefferson finished. "That is precisely what I am saying."

For some reason Josh was not really surprised by his stepfathers revelation about Pete and Dreadnought. He'd suspected from the moment that he and the rest of Team Steel had been briefed on Dreadnought that the machine's host was someone close to him. That didn't stop the sudden cold fury that gripped his heart or keep him from literally seeing red. How dare Vostok and Karland use Pete as a host? _When I get my hands on them,_ he thought thinking of all the things he would do. Like perhaps use Karland for turbo practice. _Calm down Josh,_ he told himself, _you can't use your nanotech powers on Karland or even Ivan Vostok out of a desire for retribution. If you did then you'd be no better than them._

Jefferson watched without surprise the cascade of emotions that passed across Josh's face. He imagined that he had looked the same to Rachel when he'd first been told who Dreadnought's host was.

"Is Pete alright?" Josh asked after a moment his voice cool and collected which was in away more frightening than a bellow.

"Not at the moment. The last word I had was that Yevshenko and Berto are trying to remove the Dreadnought technology from his body. They called me a few minutes before you two came in. The inner layer of circuitry is physically interwoven with his flesh. In addition theirs technology spread out inside Pete's body - probably designed to keep him alive so that Dreadnought could continue to function. They have to get it all out if he's to live. Unfortunately we don't have much time. Just six hours."

"Why only six hours?" Laura asked trying to keep her own rage at Pete's fate under control.

"The EMP discharge that disabled Dreadnought has done a lot of damage to the things circuitry. The circuitry pathways are collapsing in somekind of slow cascade reaction - probably some sort of self-destruct. In six hours the circuitry will stop functioning all together. When it does Pete will die. Unless we remove the circuitry first."

"Have Pete's folks been told," Josh asked after a moment hiding his sudden terror at the thought of losing Pete.

"I sent Rachel to go and get them just before I called you," Jeff responded. "They're coming and will be here soon. In the meantime do you want to see Pete?" They both nodded.

Jefferson smiled slightly expecting the answer. Standing up he led them over to the concealed lift. Josh of course already knew where it was, he'd been in it a number of times. For Laura however this was her first time and it would only be about the third time that she would have seen the real N'Tek.

As soon as the lift started down with them inside Josh changed to Max. He did so reflexively without even thinking about it, he was so used to going into Max mode whenever he went down to the real N'Tek that these days he changed to Max automatically. It was just as well. For his conscious thoughts were occupied by his concern for Pete and his anger at Karland for using Pete in such a manner. 


	7. A Chance At Freedom

****

Dreadnought

Chapter Seven: A Chance At Freedom

N'Tek Car

Approaching Del Oro Bay Bridge

Rachel Leeds glanced back from her position in the passenger seat of the vehicle at the two people-sitting silent in the back seat of the car. Jacob and Amanda Costas were holding hands both pale with worry for their son, especially now that the knew what had happened to him, what Vostok and Karland had changed him into. And both still astonished by the truth she had revealed to them - the truth about N'Tek. She hadn't told them the truth about Max - that he was really their sons best friend Josh McGrath - for the simple reason that it was Max's secret to tell not hers. There was no doubt in her mind that Max would tell them the truth about who he really was sooner or later, knowing Max it would probably be sooner rather than later and when he considered it to be the right time.

Amanda Costas noticed her watching them.

"How much longer," Amanda demanded anxious to get to her son's bedside even if he was still cocooned by circuitry and didn't know that she was there. It was just important to her that she was there for her son.

"Not long," Rachel replied with an understanding smile. "We're almost to the bridge across to the island. It's quicker than taking the ferry when you're approaching from this part of the city. Once across we'll be inside N'Tek in a few minutes."

"What about Pete. Any news at all," Jacob asked.

"That last I was told was that they were trying to determine the depth of the mechanical integration with his organic systems so that we could determine the best way of removing the remaining Dreadnought circuitry in the time that we have left," Rachel replied truthfully.

"What do you mean the time we have left," Amanda demanded. Rachel looked uncomfortable.

"Our analysis indicates that the circuit pathways are slowly collapsing one after another after another in a cascade reaction. It appeared that Karland designed the circuitry that way - so that it would be difficult if not impossible to free the host in time."

"In time?" Amanda queried as terror gripped her heart temporarily replacing the worry for her son and the anger at the evil scientist and his terrorist master who had done this to Pete.

"Yes. We have just six hours left to remove the circuitry before it collapses completely. If we fail to remove even a trace of the technology before it fails then Pete will die." Amanda gasped and huddled closer to her husband as Rachel put every parent's greatest nightmare into words. The possibility of loosing their child. And from Rachel had said there was a very real risk here that Pete could die as a result of what Dr Karland had done to him. If Pete did die then Amanda didn't know what she would do, how she would cope with the loss. Or how her husband would cope. Pete was everything to them - especially precious since he was their only child, Amanda had discovered shortly after his birth that she couldn't have any more children - he was the centre of their entire world. _Oh god please don't let him die,_ Amanda pleaded silently with whoever might be listening. _Take me or Jacob instead. But please don't let him die. I couldn't bare to live without him._

They sat in silence for the rest of the short journey to N'Tek.

*****

****

N'Tek Medical Centre

A Couple of Minutes Later

Berto Martinez took his glasses off for a moment, rubbed his eyes and sighed. The computer had just finished processing their latest and deepest scans of Pete's body. The Dreadnought technology was even more integrated with Pete than they had previously believed, their was a lot more of it a lot deeper in that they thought, and it was also very sophisticated and definitely based on nanotechnology. There was no doubt that Joseph Karland was a genius - a very twisted genius - and the level of sophistication to the Dreadnought technology inside Pete was even more proof of his brilliance. It was just such a great shame that Karland used his intelligence to create a weapon like Dreadnought.

"You look like someone with a problem," Laura Chen said from behind him making him jump - he hadn't heard her come up behind him. Putting his glasses back on Berto rotated his chair to look at her. They were the only two in the room besides Pete. Yevshenko had gone to the cafeteria to get some coffee and Max had gone to the top car park level with Jefferson to await the arrival of Pete's parents and Rachel.

"It's this damn Dreadnought technology," Berto admitted turning back to the computer screen. "The level of complexity and physical integration is greater than we expected. It's also spreads deeper into Pete's body than we thought. A complex web work of microfibres and nanotech circuitry woven into almost every single system in his body."

"A bit like the max probes are with Jos…I mean Max," Laura said correcting herself right at the end knowing that she should refer to Josh as Max while he was using his secret agent appearance.

"Exactly though this is very different. In many ways this represents the cruellest possible application of nanotechnology outside of using it as a weapon. For this technology is used to control and sustain the life of the host, prolonging their silent torture just so Dreadnought could continue to function. In the case of Max however the nanoprobes are simply integrated with his systems - they augment him but they don't control him in anyway."

"If this is nanotech then how are you going to get it out of Pete before our time runs out," Laura asked.

"I have no idea," Berto admitted. Then the idea occurred. "Of course why didn't I think of that earlier."

"What!" Laura asked.

"There are only three things in this world that can destroy nanotechnology once its inside a Human," Berto replied. "Repeated electrical shocks from high-tension power lines or from Electrix. The heavy EMP pulse from a thermonuclear blast or another form of nanotechnology."

"So?"

"So all we have to do to get this damned stuff out of Pete is use our own nanotechnology."

"Explain," Laura demanded in a tone that she'd unwittingly picked up from Jefferson. It made Berto jump momentarily startled. Berto turned to face her again.

"Easy. The max probes are designed with the ability to destroy hostile nanotechnology should they detect it. All we have to do is reprogram some of them to use that function to destroy the remaining Dreadnought circuitry and to repair the cell damage it has caused. They're easily capable of doing that - why do you think Max heals so quickly if he cuts himself or gets hurt in the field?"

"That does sound like the best chance that Pete has," Laura agreed as she spoke the door opened.

"What sounds like the best chance," Yevshenko asked as she came back into the room. Berto explained. "That would work," she agreed.

"I better go and get some nanoprobes then and reprogram them."

"I'll brief Smith when he comes back in," Yevshenko added. Berto got to his feet and started to leave the room.

"Berto," Laura said. Berto stopped and looked back at her questioningly. "Do you mind if I come with you?"

"Sure come on."

Laura followed Berto out of the room and into the virtual labyrinth of corridors and chambers that made up the secret world of the real N'Tek. Laura made sure that she kept Berto in sight since he knew where exactly he was going where as she hadn't been here often enough to know her way around this place. Then their was the fact that many of the agents here didn't know her, she could easily find herself placed in one of the places temporary holding cells, even though she had a security authorisation card encoded with her DNA pattern and signed by both Jefferson Smith and Rachel Leeds.

After a short walk they turned down a corridor that ran past a pair of lift shafts and on the right branched off in the direction of the Main Operations Room. They walked right along the corridor and round the corner at the end to find themselves in front of a two-inch thick shield door made of a tough titanium-carbon alloy. A control panel was built into the wall beside it. Laura watched as Berto punched his security code into the keypad, then take off his glasses to allow a retinal scanner to scan his right eye. Their was a whirring noise from the door followed by a click and the door opened of its own accord.

"Come on," Berto said inclining his head at the door and walking through it. Laura followed him and looked curiously around the room. Their was a central isle with tables covered in equipment of all sorts on the right and on the left side a work area also filled with different pieces of equipment. But it was what was at the end of the central isle that caught her attention. A big circular workstation from which rose a massive thick glass cylinder filled with a thick fluid that gave off a ghostly yellow-green glow of transphasic energy. The cylinder was capped at the top with a complex looking metal apparatus that was connected to several metal cylinders spaced around the cul-de-sac it was in by a series of heavy metal pipes. A set of conduits rose from the top and disappeared into the ceiling. Laura assumed that they had to lead to the transphasic generator. Though she had never been in this room before Laura knew what it was - the MX lab, the place where max probes were created and stored. And also the place where two years ago Josh had confronted Psycho for the first time and been changed forever.

"Impressive," she commented looking at the cylinder.

"I'm glad that you think so," Berto replied as he walked over to a cabinet in the work area and began looking for a small transport container in which to put the nanoprobes when he took them out of the storage tank.

"What are those side cylinders for," Laura asked.

"There manufacturing units," Berto replied as he succeeded in finding the right type of test tube and started over towards the storage cylinder. "It is in those that the nanoprobes are actually created and mixed with suspension fluid before being pumped into this thing," he continued explaining. "Once in the top they are subjected to a brief transphasic blast to charge them up before being allowed to drop into the storage cylinder. The manufacturing units are inactive at the moment as the cylinder is at its maximum storage capacity. They'll only activate again when the amount of stored probes drops to eighty percent capacity."

He reached the cylinder at that time, after removing the test tubes cap he placed it in the specialised slot in the workstation that made up the base of the cylinder then pressed a button. With a whirr a valve opened and thick luminous yellow-green fluid quickly filled the tube. The valve immediately closed again. Laura watched fascinated.

"You know we used to have to do this by hand," Berto said to her as he carefully removed the tube from the valve slot and put the top back on. "The valve had to be turned on and off manually. It was also prone to leaking which is why there's a drain underneath the transfer pipe that leads back into the cylinder. So we replaced the valve with a computer controlled one."

Laura followed him as he walked back over to the work area and slotted the test tube into a specific machine and typed in a series of commands.

"What are you doing now?" she asked curiously.

"Reprogramming these nanoprobes," Berto replied. "I've just told this machine what I want it to do and it will change the sequence of commands stored in the memories of the individual nanoprobes accordingly." The machine bleeped. "There it's done," he finished removing the test tube. "Come on lets get back. The sooner Pete gets these things the more chance he has."

*****

They returned to the medical bay to find Jefferson Smith standing outside waiting for them. Both Berto and Laura guessed that everyone else was inside the bay with Pete - including his parents.

"Yevshenko just told me your plan," Jefferson said to Berto. "Are you sure that there is no other way? You know what the consequences could be of this approach." Both Berto and Laura knew what Smith meant by that. Pete could very well end up with the same kind of superhuman abilities and the dependence of transphasic energy that Max/Josh had as a result of what they were planning on doing.

"There is no other way," Berto replied. "I wish that there was but there is none. Not even if we had more time. The nanotech used in the Dreadnought technology is to sophisticated and spread to deeply into Pete's body to be dealt with in any other way. This is Pete's only chance at freedom." Smith sighed.

"I suspected that you were going to say that," he admitted. "But I just had to be sure." Berto nodded in understanding then Jefferson turned and went back into the medical bay. They followed.

As anticipated everyone was there. Jacob and Amanda Costas were hovering near the motionless circuitry covered form of their son - Yevshenko was busy attaching a small-modified injection device to Pete's body. Max was standing not far away keeping an eye on things but not doing anything except lending silent support.

Berto walked over to Yevshenko and gave her the sealed test tube of reprogrammed nanoprobes. Laura returned to Max's side and gently took his hand in her own. He squeezed it slightly in response. The watched intently as Yevshenko attached the cylinder to the modified injector and pressed a button - with surprising suddeness the green liquid in the test tube shot into the injector unit and vanished.

"Now what," Amanda Costas asked.

"We wait," Jefferson Smith said in answer. "And hope."


	8. More Truths

****

Dreadnought

Chapter Eight: More Truths

N'Tek Medical Centre

A Short Time Later

Jacob and Amanda Costas sat with quiet dignity in a pair of chairs beside their son's bedside. It had now been an hour since some of N'Tek's nanoprobes had been injected into their son's circuitry covered body. In that time they had noticed a considerable improvement. Within about ten minutes of the nanoprobes being first injected they'd watched the surface circuitry literally dissolve away leaving behind normal skin that was deathly pale and tinged grey from all the circuitry underneath. But now even that had changed - the greyness had vanished replaced by the more normal pinkish tinge to the skin - though Pete was still very pale. The rate of improvement was accelerating - though they had to look at the monitors to see it - as the nanoprobes used the materials in the Dreadnought circuitry to make more of themselves even as they destroyed the circuitry. In an hour the nanoprobes had gone from numbering about a thousand to numbering in the hundreds of millions and their number was still growing as they cleansed Pete's body of Karland's diabolical technology. 

In the last twenty minutes a kind of energy capacitor had been hooked up to Pete's body and was periodically sending small bursts of some yellow-green energy into Pete. When they'd asked Berto - they still found it had to believe that the quiet, reserved Hispanic young man was a secret agent - what it was they'd been told that it was transphasic energy - whatever that was - and that the nanoprobes needed it in order to keep functioning. The capacitor he'd brought in and hooked up to that modified injector sent small jolts of transphasic power into Pete whenever it detected that the nanoprobes were starting to run a little low - since they hadn't been at full power to start with and with all the work they were currently doing they needed regular top ups to keep going.

The sound of footsteps caught their attention and they both looked up as two people came back into the room. To their total lack of surprise it was Max Steel and Laura Chen - they'd been regularly checking up on what was happening. Laura's presence at Max's side was still something of a surprise to Jacob and Amanda - last thing they'd known she'd been Josh's girlfriend. Josh! That was another thing that surprised them, the fact that Josh was not here at N'Tek. Or was he here and they just hadn't seen him. After all Berto was an agent so it was possible that Josh was as well. If that was the case then they might not have seen him because he might actually be out in the field - bashing the heads of the people who'd done this thing to Pete.

"Hello again you two," Jacob said in greeting before looking back at Pete. "He's getting better."

"Physically yes," Max replied looking at the sleeping form of his best friend and feeling Laura's grip tighten on his hand. "We can repair his body but repairing the damage to his mind is going to take a lot longer to heal. There is going to be a lot of pain, a lot of tears and he's going to need a lot of tender loving care before he fully recovers from what was done to him. And from what he saw himself do."

"He was aware of everything?" Amanda asked horrified at the concept. Such a thing would be much worse than death.

"Yes. In order for Dreadnought to function the host has to be conscious even though the host - in this case Pete - has absolutely no influence or control over the unit. It was one of the main reasons why the government abandoned the Dreadnought project. Not even the most rabid war hawks in government or the military wanted to put a person through the kind of living hell they would endure while bonded to the machine."

"You mean the government was behind the creation of this thing?"

"Originally Joseph Karland was a researcher working on the governments so called 'black projects' so yes in away they are responsible for Dreadnought's creation. Though to be fair when they found out the truth about what that thing would do to a man they destroyed the project, all data was erased. Karland went rouge at that point - taking some information with him. It has taken him nearly a decade to rebuild his creation."

"Typical government thinking," Jacob said softly shaking his head. "Here's a potential new weapon lets research it."

"Typical of the time," Max reminded him. "Back then the cold war had only recently ended and many people on both sides of the old 'iron curtain' still thought in cold war ways. These days researching things like Dreadnought would be unthinkable."

"Or so you believe," Laura commented.

"Yes so we believe. But if research like that does still go on then the government has gotten allot better at hiding it."

For along couple of minutes after that they were all silent just keeping an eye on Pete. Then Amanda turned to Max and prepared to ask him a question that had been bothering both her and Jacob.

"Max?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering could you answer a question for me." Max inclined his head slightly and studied Amanda for a moment. Was she going to ask him the question that he thought she was going to ask him.

"If I can," he answered playing along. Out of the corner of his eye he caught the grin that was appearing on Laura's face she knew what was coming. They both did.

"Good," Amanda said noticing Laura's grin and wondering what was going on. "Can you please tell me where Josh is? I would have expected him to be here." She was shocked when Max actually smiled brightly.

"I was wondering when you were going to ask that," he replied. "The answer to that question is an easy one. Josh is here." Amanda exchanged a look with her husband both wondering what exactly Max meant by that. Out the corner of her eye she noticed that Laura's grin had just gotten much wider. Strange.

"Then where is he," she asked after a moment. "We haven't seen him." She was shocked again when Max actually grinned.

"Actually you have you just don't know," he replied as his right hand inched towards the biolink band on his left forearm.

"Meaning," Jacob asked.

"Meaning this," Max replied cryptically and before Jacob or Amanda could ask any more questions he pressed a certain control on his biolink band.

The question that Amanda and Jacob were about to ask died on their tongues as with a soft crackling noise and a ripple of transphasic power the brown-haired blue-eyed agent transformed into blond-haired brown-eyed Josh McGrath. To say that they were stunned by the change was an understatement. Even after all the amazing things they'd seen here at N'Tek - all the unbelievable things they'd learned, this was something that they had never considered possible.

"I take it that this was not what you expected when you asked where I was," Josh said with a smile. He found the amazed looks on their faces quiet amusing.

"No," Amanda admitted. "How did you do that?"

"Simple nanotechnology."

"Meaning?" Jacob asked wondering if they were going to have to play twenty questions with Josh to get the answers they wanted.

"Josh is nanotech enhanced," Laura said drawing surprised looks from Jacob and Amanda.

"What do you mean by that," Amanda questioned.

"It would be better Amanda to address that question to me," Josh responded drawing their attention back to him. "Inside of me are billions of nanoprobes."

"Nanoprobes! You mean the things you injected into Pete."

"Yes their identical expect that the ones that have been put into Pete have been given a specific job to do and that's it. They shouldn't do to him what they did to me, though it is a possibility."

"What is a possibility?" Jacob demanded to know. "What did these nanoprobe things do to you Josh." _And what could they do to my son,_ he thought, _though if they give me him back then I don't really care what they do._

"When I was accidentally infused with them the nanoprobes immediately started to become a part of me. They became one with all the systems in my body. My skin, my bones, my muscles, my organs everything. The result being that all my systems became enhanced. Because of the nanoprobes I know have a variety of superhuman abilities. You've already seen one of them."

"That shape shifting thing you did when you were Max. Why did you assume that identity anyway?"  


"Through necessity I wouldn't have been allowed to join N'Tek otherwise - when I discovered all the powers that were suddenly inside of me I felt I had no choice but to join. Dad didn't want me to but by showing him that handy little ability that Berto and me discovered then I was able to convince him to let me be an agent using the cover persona of Max Steel."

"You can do alot more than change shape," Amanda asked.

"Alot more," Laura informed her.

"As I said the nanoprobes give me a variety of superhuman abilities. For example I'm twice as fast, twice as strong and a lot more agile than a normal human on a routine basis. And I can be even faster, stronger and agile whenever I want just by going into what's called turbo mode. I can also see and hear a lot better."

"How much better," Jacob asked curiously.

"When I want to I can zoom my vision in on objects up to a mile away. Kind of like the telescopic view on a camera only in my head. I see everything with perfect clarity. And when I want to I can see into the ultraviolet and infrared areas of the spectrum. As for my hearing its still confined the spectrum of sounds that humans normally hear - I don't hear things like dog whistles and stuff. But I can hear a lot better than normal. For example if you were talking on the otherside of a crowded room I could - if I wanted to - hear what you were saying as if I was standing next to you and screen out the noise of everyone else talking."

"Wow can you do anything else."

"The only other thing is what is termed - for obvious reasons - stealth mode."

"Stealth mode! Stealth can mean a lot of things Josh so what exactly do you mean."

"I mean this." Josh pressed a button on his biolink to Jacob and Amanda's shock - but to Laura's complete lack of surprise - and seemed to vanish into thin air. A second later he reappeared in a different position - standing right next to Pete's bed.

"That's amazing," Jacob exclaimed.

"It's not perfect," Josh responded. "Certain types of infrared and other sensors can detect me even if stealthed. And as with turbo mode stealth mode takes a lot of energy to use. After repeated use of either or both stealth and turbo modes then I require a T-juice infusion immediately otherwise the nanoprobes inside me will stop functioning and I will slip into a come and die."

"T-juice," Amanda exclaimed wondering what Josh meant by T-juice then it occurred to her. "You mean transphasic energy." Josh nodded. "You need it in order to stay alive."

"Yes. The nanoprobes do take some energy from normal human metabolic process but that is nowhere near enough to provide them with their full energy needs. So in order for the probes to function properly I have to regularly be exposed to high-intensity beams of transphasic energy. Once fully charged I can survive without another recharge for up to a month - provided I don't have to use my more energy demanding powers. It's the only drawback of being nanotech enhanced."

For a couple of moments Jacob and Amanda were silent then they looked over at Laura. Neither of them failed to notice that Laura wasn't surprise by any of this.

"How long have you known about all this," Jacob asked out of simple curiosity.

"Nearly a year," Laura replied. "I am one of only two civilians who knows that Josh McGrath and Max Steel are the same person."

"So who's the other," Amanda asked. Laura smiled and nodded to the bed and Amanda's eyes went wide. "Pete knows about you?" she asked Josh.

"Yes." Josh decided that it wouldn't be advisable for Jacob and Amanda to learn how Pete had found out about him. At least not at this time.

"What about Pete," Jacob asked. "Will he end up like you?"

"It is a possibility," Josh admitted. "Though from what I understand from Berto it's a remote possibility."

"How remote," Amanda asked though not really caring. Like her husband she didn't really care what the nanoprobes did to Pete as long as she got her son back. If the price of Pete's return to her was Pete gaining the superhuman powers that Josh had then it was a price that she was willing to pay.

"That I do not know," Josh admitted. "You would have to ask Berto. He knows a lot more about nanotechnology than I do. I just know how to use the powers that nanoprobes give me. Anything else goes way over my head. Berto on the other hand has a doctorate in cybernetics and nanotechnology. If you really want to know then ask him."

"Ask me what," Berto's voice said. Josh spun around to see Berto coming into the room. He looked straight at Jacob and Amanda. "What do you want to know?" Jacob and Amanda looked at each other.

"We would like to know just how great the possibility is of Pete ending up with the same abilities that Josh has," Jacob responded.

"The possibility is very remote," Berto assured them. "The nanoprobes are not programmed to integrate with Pete in this instance. They're just programmed to destroy the Dreadnought circuitry and repair the cellular damage it has caused. They'd only integrate with his organic systems if the level of cellular damage is beyond their ability to heal any other way."

"Is it?"

"To be honest I don't know," Berto admitted. "Even with state of the art bio sensors we are not able to scan with that level of accuracy - especially through the armour and circuitry that was covering his body. But whether they integrate or not is in the end irrelevent. Either way you get your son back and in the end that is all that really matters isn't it?"

"Yes," Jacob admitted looking at his son. "In the end that is all that matters."

Berto smiled slightly then turned to look at Josh.

"Rachel's looking for you hermano," he said softly. "She wants you in the briefing room."

"What for?" Josh asked though he knew Rachel would never want to see him in such circumstances as these if it wasn't important.

"We've been analysing the data on the computer in Karlands van. We think that we've found the Vostok base where the main Dreadnought lab is located. If we're lucky then Vostok himself will be there. I think Rachel want's you to be part of the strike time."

"Alright then," Josh said with a sigh even as he morphed to Max again. He looked over at Jacob, Amanda and Laura. "Sorry duty calls. Bro will you keep me advised of Pete's condition."

"Sure thing hermano." With that Max turned to leave.

"Max," Laura called. Max turned and looked back at her. "Be careful."

"Don't worry about me I'll be okay," Max ressaured her then he turned and left. 


	9. The Lions Den

****

Dreadnought

Chapter Nine: The Lions Den

Max Steel crouched in the scrubland overlooking one of Ivan Vostok's numerous bases. On the surface it appeared to be nothing but a remote corporate research facility - but that was only an illusion. Beneath its low buildings and industrial network of pipes and tanks the large facility was a base for one of the worlds largest and most dangerous terrorist groups.

Hidden in the scrub undergrowth in the cool of the night with him were four more N'Tek agents in the forms of Kat Ryan, Jake Nez, Chuck Marshak and Sophia Skarsgaard. All four of his fellow agents were observing the perimeter with sets of high-powered nightsight binoculars. Max for his part didn't need binoculars to survey the perimeter of the base. With his nanotech enhanced vision he could see the perimeter almost as if he was standing next to it. And as for the fact that it was dark – the dark was no barrier to him especially with his vision on infrared mode he could see perfectly well. Though at this distance he couldn't see the finer details like writing on signs.

But he could still see well enough to note the quiet heavy guard on the perimeter. The whole thing was patrolled by guards wearing combat armour and carrying pulse laser rifles. He couldn't tell exactly what mark and make they were from here.

"They've got a lot of firepower," Kat commented keeping her voice down low to avoid drawing any attention from the patrols that they'd seen moving about the areas immediately outside the base's outer fence. "And that perimeter is solid it's not going to be easy to get through."

"You might not need to," Berto's voice said abruptly over Max's biolink and over everyone else's radio's. "I've just run a scan of the area. According to the results theirs a series of underground tunnels leading out of the base. From the angle I'd say their storm drains. The closest one to you has a maintenance access hatch about two hundred meters to your right."

"Got it Berto thanks," Kat responded over her radio.

Quickly and quietly the currently expanded Team Steel shifted their position and moved through the scrubby vegetation that was the norm in this part of California without making a sound.

Sure enough they found the access hatch precisely where Berto had said it would be. A rectangular concrete block rising out of the sandy soil capped with a thick metal hatch secured down by a padlock attached to a short thick metal chain that wound between the lock mechanism on top of the hatch to a metal rung built into the side of the concrete slab. From the rusted nature of the chain and hatch it was obvious that the inspection hatch was not used that often. But the rust didn't mean that the chain was any weaker than it had originally been, not that it was any barrier to them – thick as it was.

Quickly Kat produced a laser knife from a slot on her belt and activated it. The three-inch energy blade sliced through the chain like the proverbial hot knife through butter. While Kat secured the knife back on her belt Max unthreaded the chain and padlock from the hatch cover, before turning the locking mechanism and lifting the hatch cover. It was heavy and its hinges had stiffened from lack of use – to a normal man it would have been incredibly difficult to move. But Max was twice as strong as a normal man at any time of the day or night and was able to lift the hatch cover as if it was used regularly and weighed next to nothing.

A few moments later everyone was descending a narrow metal ladder built into the wall of the vertical shaft. Kat was in the lead with Jake, Sophia and Chuck following her in order. Max was the last since he'd been the one who closed the access hatch after they'd climbed into the narrow vertical shaft.

The vertical shaft dropped a good ten meters before they reached the bottom, which was a small alcove off the main tunnel. Quickly they moved into the main tunnel – the slope was slight and presented no problem with walking. The main problem was the fact that the floor was covered with patches of a form of algae that grew in these sorts of places and was a favourite food for the rats that they could hear and through their torchlight's see living in the tunnel. None of them were particularly happy about walking past the little furry rodents – that screeched and ran away whenever a torchlight played on them or when they got to close - but this was the quickest way into the base without being detected.

Kat especially hated being in the tunnel – not because of the darkness but because of the rats. Ever since childhood she'd been terrified of mice and rats and she only walked down this tunnel through this tunnel with a great deal of willpower. Out of the corner of her eyes she caught Max looking at her in concern as they walked – she nodded back silently saying to her partner _'I'm all right Max I just wish we get out of here soon.'_ Max gave a slight nod of understanding. Kat turned her eyes forward as they walked down the dark tunnel towards the Vostok base. Yes she couldn't wait until they got out of here. Even if they would be going out of the frying pan into the fire.

It was a further ten minutes before they came to the end of the drainage tunnel. It was a large circular chamber dotted with numerous small outlets that connected to surface drains. On the far wall was a ladder leading upwards to a manhole cover a couple of meters above them.

It was Max who took the lead going up the ladder – the others followed him in order. Within a few seconds he was at the top below the manhole cover. Cautiously he pushed against it levering it up and taking a look around. The manhole was located on what was obviously a side road between two the complex buildings – their was no one about. Removing the cover completely he climbed out onto the surface and stood up before extending a hand to first help Kat and then the others out of the storm drain.

After replacing the cover they moved quickly and quietly keeping to the shadows communicating with each other not by their radios or Max's biolink but with the silent communication hand gestures that all N'Tek agents knew off by heart – it was a required part of their training. They advanced forward in a cautious pattern knowing that they were seriously outnumbered in this place – if they were discovered they stood little chance of succeeding in their mission of destroying the Dreadnought lab. There were so many guards in this place that even Max's nanotech powers would not necessarily ensure their escape should they be detected.

Through sheer luck they reached the side of the building where according to the computer in Karland's van the labs were located without being detected. The labs themselves like all the bases vital areas were underneath them in an underground complex that went down three levels to the power generators. It was no where near as big or extensive as the complex beneath the headquarters of corporate N'Tek but like N'Tek all the main access points were well guarded. Ivan Vostok was no fool they knew – the Russian hadn't survived in the international crime/global terrorist business for more than thirty years without learning to be cautious and thorough. Especially about things like security and secrecy. They would stand little chance of getting in through any of the main access points.

However they didn't need to get in via the lift shafts or main access shafts. According to Karland's computer records – the evil genius was nothing if not thorough with record keeping – there were a number of emergency escape ladders to the surface that were not well guarded since only base personnel knew where the things were. From Karland's records they knew that one such escape ladder was located in the eastern side of this particular building. Quickly they split up to find away in.

It was Kat who found the unlocked window that allowed them access to the base. The window was narrow and was quiet a squeeze to get through but they all managed even Max who generally had problems with things like narrow windows because of his size. After all a two hundred and ten pound former extreme athlete was not meant to squeeze through narrow windows.

As soon as everyone was inside they began to move quickly and quietly through the base their footfalls making no sound despite the composite boots they were all wearing. They encountered no one as they made it to the eastern side of the building. A single guard in combat armour was all that stood between them and the large rectangular hatch that led to the emergency escape ladder. And he would present no problems. Max quickly went into stealth mode and left his teammates to go deal with the sentry.

Kat watched expectantly through a tiny scope pointing around the corner. The sentry stood there like a statue completely unaware that anything was wrong. Suddenly the sentry jerked once and collapsed into an unconscious heap. Behind the unconscious sentry the air rippled in the shape of a man and shimmered away to reveal Max Steel. _God I love those nanoprobes,_ Kat thought, _sometimes I wish I had some of them, though come to think of it I wouldn't like the T-juice dependence that comes with them. I know for a fact that Max himself doesn't like it that much but has no choice but to accept it if he wants to stay alive._

For a brief instant she remembered how she'd thought of Max Steel before she'd actually met him and been forced to work with him on that Amazon mission. Before that mission her opinion – unlike most agents who liked Max a lot – of Max had not been very high. She'd thought him nothing but a muscleheaded agent who's only real value was his nanotech abilities. It wasn't until that mission and those that had followed that she'd realised how wrong she'd been. Yes Max preferred to get straight into the action – having little time for rigid following of the regulations which was what Rachel Leeds advocated – but that that attitude led others to underestimate him – John Dread was especially guilty of it. Max was actually very intelligent and could be very cunning when he needed to be. It hadn't taken her long to discover that the smart-aleck adrenaline junkie attitude he projected generally was just a façade to hide the gentle, caring and warm person that he really was. Chuck had later told her that Max/Josh projected that façade as a personal defence mechanism to prevent people getting to close to him because he was afraid of losing them if they did. According to Chuck it had to do with the fact that he'd lost both his mother and father before he was five years old. It was something she understood all to well – she'd lost her parents at the age of eight, so in many she was better off than Max as she had real memories of her parents not blurred images and remembered feelings which was all Max had of Jim or Molly.

Kat shook those thoughts off as Max was signalling for them all to advance quickly. She gestured to her fellow agents and they quickly darted around the corner and up to where Max was standing over the unconscious guard. Quickly they conversed quietly amongst themselves before Jake dragged the unconscious guard into a nearby store room and bound his hands and legs together before removing the guards helmet and gagging him to prevent him raising the alarm. Then he left the room and rejoined the others securing the door behind him.

Once Jake rejoined them Max quickly pulled the thick shutter open. It swung open on hinges of to the right. Quickly the climbed into the narrow space – to say it was tight was an understatement. But they managed to find the ladder and start down. Sophia rear guarded their position as they descended before closing the shutter and following them down.

*****

****

N'Tek Headquarters

Berto Martinez frowned as the AV feed from Max's biolink spluttered and went dead. A signal lost message appeared on the big screen. _Damn must be communications secured down their,_ he thought even as his hands danced across the console trying to re-establish the connection with Max. He didn't hear the door open.

"Problem Berto," Laura Chen's voice said from behind him making him jump. Briefly he rotated his chair and gave Laura the evil eye for trying to give him a heart attack before rotating back to his console.

"I've lost the biolink signal with Max," he explained as he resumed typing trying to reconfigure the transmission to pierce the communications block.

"Is that bad," Laura asked coming to stand beside him a look of real concern on her face.

"In this instance not really," Berto replied. "Max has four other agents with him between them there more than capable of dealing with any opposition and carrying out their mission. It just they're going to be without background support and were not going to know what's happening." Berto looked over at Laura who was studying the blank screens. "Don't worry to much. This isn't the first time communications have been lost."

"Can you restore communications," Laura asked.

"I don't know. Probably not. The levels they've entered are communications secured. However if they succeed in their mission then the destruction of the Dreadnought lab will unsecure their communications." Laura looked at the screens again. If only they were active then she could actually see what it was her boyfriend was doing. As it was she was just going to have to trust that he could look after himself.

"I hope he's all right," she said softly and Berto knew from the sound of her voice that she wasn't speaking of Max as Max no she was speaking of Max as Josh.

"I'm sure he is," Berto replied reassuringly.

*****

****

Vostok Base

At that moment the object of Berto's and Laura's thoughts was sneaking down the corridors of the underground levels of the Vostok base. Three times now the five N'Tek agents had had close calls with patrolling guards and only managed to evade detection by the skin of their teeth.

Finally they reached the Dreadnought lab located towards the core shaft of the underground base and supplied by its own generator as well as the main fusion core deeper in the base. No one stood guarding the door which was a thick thing made of the same kind of composite metal alloys as the doors at N'Tek though this was thinner than the high-tech titanium-carbon composite alloy used in N'Tek's doors. The door was closed and locked with a complex electronic locking system controlled from a panel on the wall next to the door. They'd known to expect it.

Fishing in her backpack Sophia withdrew a small device pressed it against the locking mechanism control panel and pressed a button. The first row of lights on the device began blinking rapidly and there was a humming sound from the lock. The first of the lower set of lights came on followed by another and another as sections of the lock code were cracked. Within seconds all the lower lights had lit up and the top panel went dark. There was a whirr and a click and the door slid aside with a hum of magnets. Immediately lights automatically came on inside the lab.

While Kat stood guard in the corridor Max, Sophia, Jake and Chuck went into the lab. Max noted how well equipped the place was. There was state of the art computers and equipment of a variety of kinds here. In the corner was a large cocoon-like pod thing that looked like a larger version of the container that served as a power source and transport unit for Dreadnought. Benches were covered in equipment of various kinds but the centre of the room was taken up something like an operating table though the table had a number of slots in it positioned in such away that parts of someone's body would be accessible through the slots. Restraints were locked onto the surface of the table obviously designed to hold someone down at the waist, wrists and ankles. The table was also fitted to rotator cuffs attached to thick metal poles along the centre line of the table.

Looking at the table Max shivered as he realised that it had been on that table that Pete had been placed when Vostok had had him brought here. It was on that table that Pete's nightmare had begun.

Quickly the team went into motion. While Max, Jake and Chuck placed demolition charges on the small power generator, the gas terminals and other strategic places around the room Sophia sat down at the main computer terminal and turned it on. Computer related espionage was her field of expertise. Quickly she overrode the password lockouts and accessed the main system where upon she first downloaded a file detailing the locations of many Vostok bases and current Vostok projects to disk. Then placing another disk in she uploaded a computer virus designed to erase all the data in the base computer.

"Sophia we're done here," Jake said coming up behind her. "How are you doing?"

"Almost done," Sophia replied watching the upload status bar as it rapidly approached one hundred percent. A second later it reached it. "Upload complete," she said removing the disk, which was now blank. "You can start the timers on the explosives," she said to Chuck. The older agent nodded and pressed a button on a small.

"We have ten minutes to get out of here," Chuck said after a moment. "After that this whole level and probably the entire base will blow sky high."

They hurried back to the escape ladder. Halfway to the ladder they ran into a large squad of guards. For a moment the agents and guards stared at each completely startled by the sudden appearance of the other. The guards then started to level laser rifles but the currently expanded Team Steel was already in motion ripping into the guards with a flurry of martial arts moves. Within a few minutes all twelve guards were out for the count. Realising that they had lost considerable time Team Steel raced to the escape ladder. 

Chuck glanced at his watch as they ran – they had only five minutes to get out of here before the charges went off and gutted the base. With his hand he signalled five minutes to the rest of the team.

They made it back to the surface levels only to find that the window that they'd initially come in through had been blocked off by a series of grates that had been placed their sometime while they had been underground blocking their escape.

"How long to we have," Max asked.

"About three and a half minutes hermano," Berto's voice said over the biolink and everyone's radios.

"That's not enough time to find another way out and get back to the storm drain access point," Jake commented.

"Then we won't find one," Max replied walking up to the outfacing wall. "I'll make one. Going Turbo." Pressing the familiar button on his biolink band he immediately was enveloped by the familiar yellow-green transphasic energy aura of Turbo mode. Max proceeded to punch the wall hard. The solid concrete shattered on impact and a large chunk of wall fell away. Two more punches in rapid succession opened a hole large enough for them to escape through.

Quickly the piled back out into the side road Max disengaging Turbo mode as he did so. The road was almost completely blocked by a lorry that had been backed carefully into the ally and left unattended. No doubt the driver was inside the base. They barely managed to squeeze past only to find the front of the lorry parked over the manhole to the storm drain. With a sigh Max went Turbo again and he began pushing the lorry backwards. The lorry was a big eighteen wheeler and the huge trailer was fully loaded with cargo – even for him it was an incredible amount of weight to have to push and Max found himself straining his nanotech enhanced muscles close to their limit to do so but he managed to push it far enough back to free the manhole cover.

"Impressive even for you hermano," Berto commented over the biolink even as Max disengaged Turbo mode.

"Thanks bro," he breathed breathlessly back. That had cost him a lot it had taken an awful lot of his energy to move that truck. "How long?"

"Two minutes," was the reply. Kat darted in at the moment to open the manhole and quickly drop down. Sophia followed her so did Chuck. Jake helped a still somewhat breathless Max to the manhole where Chuck helped him climb down. They all knew that it took Max a number of minutes to recover from such a sudden and massive expenditure of transphasic energy sufficiently to move around completely on his own steam. As soon as Max was down in the storm drain Kat came up to him and flung his arm over her shoulder.

"Put some of your weight on me," she instructed her partner. Even having worked with Max for nearly a year now and seeing what he could do she was still surprised by what he had done back their. The lorry had had to weigh well over a hundred tonnes fully loaded it was a testament to the strength Max possessed that he had been able to overcome the weight and the lorry's breaks to move it backwards. Max gratefully shifted some of his weight onto Kat's shoulders. Jake dropped down at that moment and took his other arm. Max gratefully leaned on both of them.

Then they all started moving with as much pace as Max could currently manage back down the storm drain tunnel to the maintenance access point that had allowed them access. They had reached the alcove when Berto called over the biolink and over their radios.

"Five seconds brace yourselves." They hurriedly did so bracing themselves against the walls of the storm drain.

A second later there was a distant series of rumbling explosions. The tunnel visibly flexed up and down as the shockwaves ran along it. Rats screeched and ran in panic as dust fell from the ceiling as the reinforced concrete tube groaned in strain. After a moment or two the shockwaves faded away. Once they were sure it was safe Team Steel began the climb to the surface. Though able to move under his own steam again now Max took it slowly as he could feel that moving that lorry had severely drained his T-juice levels. He was going to have an appointment with the transphasic generator when they got back to N'Tek.

A few moments later he was back on the surface to see the stars blocked off by smoke that was glowing with the reflection of fires. A glance over at the base showed that most of it had been destroyed in the blast – a large section had actually collapsed and almost everything remaining was burning. Had he bothered to enhance his vision he would have seen the few surviving base personnel scrambling to escape the base. Sensors on orbital satellites would have picked up the fire and California wild land fire fighters would already be coming to put the flames out. Fortunately it was the wrong time of year for the Santa Anna wind so the was little danger of the fire spreading uncontrollably. It wouldn't take fire fighters long to put the fire out.

The sound of an engine caught his attention and Max turned away from the burning wreckage of the base to see the desert buggy that had brought them here from Behemoth coming towards them being remotely driven by Berto. The buggy came to a stop right next to them and they all climbed aboard. Kat took control from Berto and drove off across the scrubby desert vegetation to where Behemoth was waiting on the far side of the ridge.

Ten minutes later the huge transport aircraft lifted off the ground – stealthed itself before shooting off in the direction of Del Oro Bay. 


	10. An Unexpected Occurance

Dreadnought

****

Chapter Ten: An Unexpected Occurrence 

****

Infirmary 

**N'Tek Headquarters**

Pete Costas still lay deeply unconscious in the infirmary showing no sign of when he would awaken from his sleep.  He was currently on his own.  Dr Yevshenko along with Jacob and Amanda Costas had gone to the canteen to have something to eat and Max was currently in a conference room with the rest of Team Steel being debriefed after being recharged.  Laura was currently their as well just watching and being grateful that her boyfriend had survived another mission. 

Deep within Pete the last of the Dreadnought circuitry had been eliminated and the cell damage repaired by the billions of tiny machines that had grown from the few hundred nanoprobes initially injected a few hours before.  With the Dreadnought circuitry gone and the damage it had caused repaired Pete's system was finally beginning to recover from the horrendous trauma that it had been put through first by Karlands technology and secondly by the nanoprobes destroying that self same technology to save Pete's life and give him back the freedom taken away by Joseph Karland.

Now that their assigned task had been completed the army of max probes present in Pete's body began shutting down.

All save one.

Of all the billions and billions of max probes present in Pete's body one nanoprobe sitting on the surface of Pete's heart did not stop.   A slight flaw in its circuitry caused by a fluke replication error caused the shut down command to be ignored.  Instead the nanoprobe resorted to its standard programming in place of the specialised set of instructions that it had originally been programmed with.

It's standard programming restored the nanoprobe immediately scanned its surroundings and detected more of its kind but that were inert.  Immediately the tiny machines computer assumed that the other nanoprobes were malfunctioning and moved over to the nearest nanoprobe and promptly 'repairing' it so that it too became active again with its standard programming operational.  Immediately the now two nanoprobes moved to the next neighbouring nanoprobes and 'repaired' them as well.  Within seconds every single nanoprobe in the area of Pete's heart was operating again but with their standard programming.  Most of the nanoprobes immediately integrated themselves with surrounding cell structures while a few continued repairing their fellows bringing more and more nanoprobes on line to merge with cells or continue seeking out and repairing other nanoprobes.

By the time the first signs of what was going on inside Pete showed up on the systems monitoring him it was too late for anyone to do anything about it, if anyone had been there to notice.

Dr Yevshenko along with Pete's parents returned to the infirmary barely five minutes later.  As soon as she entered the room Yevshenko moved to check Pete's vital signs on the monitors while Jacob and Amanda moved back into the chairs at their sons bedside.

As soon as she saw Pete's readings Yevshenko frowned.  There was still nanoprobe activity going on inside Pete.  _Curious the max probes should have finished their task by now,_ she thought and then she noticed something.  The pattern of nanoprobe activity had changed from their previous pattern of activity – the new pattern was completely different and seemed familiar from somewhere.

After a moment's thought Yevshenko realised why the new pattern was so familiar.  She'd seen it before, once and in only one individual.  The time was two years ago and the individual was Josh McGrath.

For a few moments Yevshenko stared at the changed readings in shock before realisation hit her.  The max probes were doing something that they shouldn't have been doing, something that they weren't programmed to do in this instance.  They were integrating with Pete's systems in exactly the same way as another set of max probes had done with Josh when he'd been exposed to them two years ago in the nanotech lab.  The display showed that the nanoprobe integration was already fifty percent complete way past the point of no return.

"Is there a problem doctor?" Jacob asked noticing the look of surprise on Yevshenko's face.  Amanda looked up from studying her sons sleeping features to give Yevshenko a curious look herself.  Yevshenko overcame her surprise after a moment and responded.

"It's the max probes," she said.  Jacob and Amanda both frowned.

"What about them," Amanda asked.

"They've finished their programmed task.  But now they're doing something else.  Something they shouldn't be doing."

"What," Jacob demanded then it dawned upon him.  "There integrating with Pete aren't they?  Just like they did with Josh two years ago."

"Yes.  But they shouldn't be doing it they weren't programmed to."  Jacob thought back to the earlier conversation he and his wife had had with Josh and Berto just after they'd discovered that Max Steel and Josh McGrath were the same person.

"Berto said earlier that it was possible that the probes could integrate," he said.  "But only if the cell damage was bad enough."

"I am aware of that but the cell damage wasn't bad enough.  If it was the max probes would have started integrating with Pete's body hours ago."

"So what's causing it," Amanda asked.  "And can you stop it?"

"I don't know what's causing it," Yevshenko admitted.  "As to stopping the nanoprobes theirs no way to stop them now.  It's the same problem that we had with Josh.  The level of integration is already too high; a large number of Pete's organic systems are already dependent on them.  If we tried to remove the nanoprobes now then he'd go into complete systemic collapse and die."

"Is there anything at all we can do?" Jacob asked looking down at his son.  Aside from being asleep Pete showed no sign of anything being wrong with him now, there was no sign of what was going on inside him.  No outward sign of the superhuman he was changing into.

"No there is nothing we can do.  All we can do is wait for the integration to complete itself and then blast him with transphasic energy – he'll need it badly once the nanoprobes are done with what they are doing."  She moved over to the wall phone.

"What are you doing," Amanda asked.

"I'm going to call Jefferson he needs to be informed."  With that she picked up the phone and dialled the number for the briefing room.  After a moment she was answered.

"Smith here," Jefferson's voice said.

"Yevshenko sir you had better come down here to the infirmary and bring Berto with you."

"Why?  Has something happened?"

"Yes sir.  It's the max probes they've begun integrating themselves with Pete."  For a long second there was a stunned silence on the other end of the phone line.

"We'll be right there," Jefferson said finally before signing off.  Yevshenko put the phone down and went back over to the monitors besides Pete's bed.  It was essential that she keep an eye on what exactly was going on inside Pete so they would know when it was safe to expose him to a full duration blast of transphasic power not the small bursts he'd been subjected to so far.  Too soon and the energy beam would kill him, too late and the nanoprobes would shut down and he again would die.  Either way she knew full well that the very first recharge would be incredibly painful for Pete.  No one knew quiet why the first recharge was so painful – not even Berto knew – just that it was.  She hid a shiver as she briefly remembered Josh screaming – the agony implicit in those screams that tore into the soul – during his first recharge.  He'd later told her that it had felt as through every cell in his body had been on fire.  She would have to speak to Pete's parents to prepare them for what was going to have to happen soon otherwise it would not be fair to them.  They had already been through so much of an emotional roller coaster over the last few months that it wouldn't be fair not to warn them. 


	11. Awakening

Chapter Eleven: Awakening 

****

Briefing Room N'Tek Headquarters, Ten Minutes Later 

Max Steel didn't pay that much attention to the debriefing session for the currently expanded Team Steel after Jefferson and Berto's departure in response to a summons from Dr Yevshenko.  Though they hadn't said what the problem was to the others – Jeff had just said they were needed in the infirmary – Max knew.  His nanotech-enhanced hearing had picked up what his father had said into Berto's ear about the max probes becoming one with Pete.  He didn't really know what to think about that.

Ever since that time when Dread had kidnapped Pete, when Pete had learned the truth about Max and Josh being one in the same he had been both very curious and very envious of the superpowers that Max/Josh had.  Though he'd never said anything Max knew full well that Pete had often wondered what it would be like to possess such abilities himself.  Well now he was going to find out.  And Max didn't know how he felt about that.  He didn't know whether to feel happy that he wasn't going to be the only nanotech-enhanced Human around anymore, or whether to feel sad for Pete for the same reason.  From now on he knew full well that Pete's life would be dictated by two big things, one the need to keep their powers hidden from the general public, and two by the dependence on transphasic energy to live.  Even after two and a half years Max couldn't help but sometimes feel disgusted by that dependence – by having to rely on some outside source for life like the worlds worst drug addict, though he didn't feel that way nearly as often now as he had for the first few months after his infusion.  He didn't know how Pete would cope with that and with all the trauma that he had already been through.

Becoming Max Steel had been traumatic enough for him – it had been the cause of nightmares for months afterwards – and he hadn't been through anything like what Pete had been through in the last month.  In the last month Pete had been through an experience that could only be described as pure hell.  As he thought about it Max felt his anger at Joseph Karland and Ivan Vostok for what they'd done to Pete rise again.  Max clamped down on his anger almost immediately – raging about Dreadnought would gain him nothing.

The question that was really bothering him was how would Pete cope with it.  He knew that Pete would be very deeply scarred by the experience – anyone would be.  Add to that the stress that having to adapt to suddenly being superhuman caused – Pete was going to be in for a very rough time in the next couple of months.  One thing was clear to Max/Josh though, and that he was going to have to a friend/brother to Pete like never before in months to come.  Not that he minded at all.

The sight of everyone standing up and leaving the room suddenly jolted him out of his thoughts.  Max blinked in surprise – he must have gotten more distracted than he'd realised.  Out of the corner of his eyes he caught Rachel giving him a concerned look – but then she too stood up and left the room.  A moment later he felt Laura's hand on his shoulder.

"Okay what's the matter," Laura asked.  He gave his girlfriend a half-hearted look that said that there was nothing wrong and that he was just tired, knowing full well that she would most likely see through it.  Over the last year Laura had perfected the skill of seeing what he was really feeling whether he was Max or Josh.  Sure enough she saw through his look.  

"Don't give me that look," Laura continued.  "You should know by now that you cannot fool me that way anymore.  So what's the matter?"  Laura moved into the seat next to him even as he sighed.

"It's Pete," he admitted.  He held up a hand to stop Laura from speaking.  "I heard what dad said to Berto after Yevshenko called."  Laura smiled knowingly. 

"So what's going on," she asked.  Then it dawned upon her.  There could only be one reason why Yevshenko would want both Jefferson and Berto down in the infirmary so quickly.  It had to be the max probes – they had to be doing to Pete what they'd done to Josh two years ago when they'd transformed him the superhuman secret agent sitting across from her.  "It's the nanoprobes isn't it?  They're doing to Pete what they did to you."

"Yes," Max replied finally his tone quiet and thoughtful, something that wasn't often associated with either Max Steel or Josh McGrath.  Laura frowned.

"I didn't think they were supposed to do that," she answered.

"They weren't.  They were just programmed to destroy the Dreadnought technology inside Pete and repair the cell damage it caused, nothing more.  If they were integrating in response to the cell damage they would have done so ages ago."

"So why are they doing it now," Laura wondered.  Max shrugged his broad shoulders.

"I don't know.  There might have been somekind of malfunction in one or more of the probes.  I don't know I'm no expert on nanotech.  I just know how to use it," Max replied.  "What's worrying me is how is Pete going to cope with it."

"You managed," Laura reminded him.

"Yes but I hadn't been through what Pete's recently been through.  Pete's been through a living hell this last month.  He's doesn't need the additional stress of having to learn how to control nanotech powers.  True learning to control them will be a lot easier for Pete than it was for me because I'll be there to help him.  But he doesn't need this."

"You're right," Laura agreed.  "But we're just going to have to accept it as the price of Pete's freedom.  All we can hope to do now Josh," she used his real name on purpose, "is be there for him.  He's going to need us as he's never needed us before in the next few weeks and months."  Max had to nod in agreement.  Then he sighed and stood up.

"We should go back down to the infirmary," he said.  "Pete will almost certainly wake up soon.  We should be there when he does."  Laura nodded in agreement.  Then they both left the room heading for the infirmary.

******

Infirmary 

Berto Martinez kept his eyes locked on Pete's bioreadings waiting for the inevitable drop off in nanoprobe activity that would indicate a critically low level of transphasic power.  The level of nanoprobe integration with Pete was already close on ninety-seven percent.  When he'd first got here from the briefing room he'd been surprised by how quickly the nanoprobes were integrating with Pete's systems.  They were going a hell of a lot quicker than the ones in Josh had; the marked difference had confused him.  

Until he'd realised that the reason for the difference was numbers.  There were already enough nanoprobes inside Pete's body to integrate with all his systems and still leave some behind in his bloodstream to boost his immune system; the probes had no need to make more of themselves.  With Josh it had been different.  When Josh had been exposed there hadn't been enough nanoprobes to integrate with him completely – the probes had needed to make more of themselves which had slowed down their growth rate significantly, they'd also had to contend with Josh's immune system which had been attacking the nanoprobes like it would any invading organism.  With Pete the probes had no immune response to deal with as Karlands technology had disabled Pete's immune system and it had only just started to recover when the nanoprobes began to integrate and had therefore been no barrier to them.

The sound of approaching footsteps abruptly caught his attention and he looked back towards the door just as Max came through accompanied by Laura.  The debriefing for the rest of Team Steel had to have finished.  Jefferson, Yevshenko, Amanda and Jacob looked over as well as Max and Laura approached the side of the bed.

"How is he?" Laura asked softly just beating Max to the punch.

Before anyone could answer there attention was abruptly grabbed by a soft groan from the bed.  Everyone immediately turned their attention to the bed.  Too see that Pete was finally beginning to stir from his sleep.

"He's regaining consciousness," she said just as Pete's eyes slowly flickered open.


	12. The Price of Freedom

Dreadnought

****

Chapter Twelve: The Price of Freedom A Few Seconds Earlier 

Pete Costas slowly felt himself rising out of the deep darkness into which he had fallen when the blast from the EMP device Max had thrown had knocked all of Dreadnoughts systems off line including those that had kept him constantly aware of what was going on, sending him into blessed unconsciousness.  Immediately he was apprehensive was he going to wake up to find himself still a prisoner in the machine-thing that had once been his body?  Wait a minute what was that?

Shock and surprise filled him as he realised that he could feel his body for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime.  Things that had once seemed so trivial and mundane that he hadn't consciously noticed them registered as if brand new.  For example he could feel the gentle regularly rise and fall motion of his chest as he breathed.  He could feel that he was lying on something soft but firm and that something soft was gently covering most of him, perhaps a blanket.  Yet something felt different about everything.  He couldn't really describe the feeling; just he could feel that something was different.

It was then that he realised that Dreadnought was gone, completely gone.  It was the only explanation for how he could be feeling what he was feeling.  He didn't understand how it could be possible – Karlands words to him just before he'd been changed had seemed to imply to him that there was no escape for him. Yet if anyone could remove Dreadnought from him then it would be N'Tek.

A shocked gasp was drawn from him as the realisation dawned that he really was free.  Due to his dry throat it came out more as a groan.

"He's regaining consciousness," he abruptly heard an unfamiliar female voice say.  

Taking that as a cue Pete tried to open his eyes.  He was surprised how much effort it took but he managed it and promptly groaned again as the bright overhead lights sent shafts of pain down his optic nerves – but only for a second, then suddenly the pain was gone and he could see normally – in fact better than normally.  Everything seemed sharper somehow, more real.  It was immediately obvious to him that he was laying on a bed in what was obviously some kind of well-funded hospital – or maybe N'Tek own medical centre.

A figure appeared over him.  His father.

"Hello son," he said and strangely his voice sounded incredibly loud so did the bleeping of the surrounding medical equipment now that Pete thought about it.  "Welcome back to the land of the living," his father continued as his mother appeared at his fathers side.

"Wher…where am I," Pete said even his own voice – dry and crackly though it was – sounded loud to him.

"Your at N'Tek," a deep familiar voice said.  Jefferson Smith appeared over him.  Followed almost immediately by Max and Laura.  Pete winced slightly at the volume in Jeff's voice.

"Not so loud," he complained.  Everyone around the bed exchanged knowing glances.  "What.  What's going on," Pete demanded.

"Were not talking loud Pete," his father said.  Pete frowned luxuriating in the feeling of feeling his facial muscles move.

"What do you mean dad," he asked.

"It only seems like were talking loud to you because of what we needed to do to get the Dreadnought technology out of you," Berto said as he appeared in Pete's vision.

"What do you mean," Pete asked again.

"Well its like this," Jefferson started saying.

Quickly, taking it in turns Jefferson, Berto and a female doctor Pete didn't know explained everything.  How they'd discovered that the Dreadnought circuitry had been slowly collapsing, killing him as it did so.  How Berto had discovered that the circuitry was based upon nanotechnology that had been applied in perhaps the cruellest possible way, how they'd used their own nanotechnology to destroy the circuitry and repair the cell and tissue damage it had caused.  Before they could continue Pete had the distinct impression that he knew where this was going.

"Wait your going to tell me that the max probes are part of me now aren't you," he said.  He looked straight at Max and saw him nod.

"Yes they are," Max replied.  "Your like me now."

"The nanoprobes weren't programmed to become part of you," Berto added.  "They were supposed to shut themselves down until they could be dialysed out of your body once their task was done."

"But they didn't did they," Pete broke in. 

"They started to," Berto replied.  "But for some reason they stopped and started doing what they weren't supposed to do.  Why I don't know.  Best guess one or more of the probes malfunctioned and misinterpreted or completely disregarded the shutdown command."

"How could they do that," Pete asked though there was no bitterness or anything in his voice.  He was grateful to have his freedom back, even if he didn't really deserve it.  Too many people had died at his hands.  _Stop thinking that right now,_ a little voice inside him said, _you couldn't stop Dreadnought.  You had no control.  You are not to blame._  Somehow he couldn't make himself believe it though.  _If I'd been stronger I could have beaten Dreadnought,_ he thought.  _No you couldn't,_ the little voice inside him answered.

"I don't know.  Possibly it was just a fluke error," Berto replied.  "Possibly a flaw that developed in the nanoprobes circuitry during the replication phase.  Its anyone's guess."

"Was there no way to stop them," Pete asked.

"No.  By the time our sensors picked up what the nanoprobes were doing it was to late to do anything to stop them," the doctor replied.

"Look at it this way Pete," Jefferson said.  "At least your alive and more importantly your free."  Pete felt a ghost of a smile come to his lips just before a really strange feeling passed through him.  A strange tiredness that seemed to plague every cell in his body simultaneously.  Then all of a sudden it was over.

"Whoa what was that," Pete said shaking his head to clear the residual disorientation.

Berto glanced over at the monitors already guessing what he was going to see.  Sure enough the monitors showed that Pete's T-juice level had dropped below ten percent.

"Your low on transphasic energy Pete," Berto said just as the feeling came to Pete again stronger this time.  Berto's words barely registered on Pete's consciousness.  Pete groaned slightly.  Then the feeling passed again and Pete sighed in relief.

"I feel horrible," he said quietly.

"I know how that feels," Max replied understanding in his tone.  "Running low on T-juice is not a nice feeling is it?"

"No," Pete admitted then grimaced as another wave of tiredness rippled through him.  "What do we do now," he asked fighting against the tiredness as best as he could but he could steadily feel himself getting weaker.

"Well we need to recharge you so to speak," Berto said.

"It's going to be painful," Max added.  "The first recharge is incredibly painful.  More painful than anything you can imagine."

"Doubt it," Pete said weakly.  "Nothing can be as painful as what Karland did to me.  So what are we waiting for lets just get it over with?"

"One thing first," Amanda said speaking for the first time.  "You need to put some clothes on.  Unless you want to go into the… what did you call it," she addressed the last part to Berto.

"The transphasic generator."

"The transphasic generator naked," Amanda finished then almost laughed as a red embarrassed flush appeared on her sons face at the thought.

"Wait here I'll get you some clothes," Max said, then he left the room.

A couple of moments later he returned with a spare N'Tek jumpsuit taken from one of the supply lockers on this level slung over his one arm.  A pair of boots in Pete's size was held in his left hand.

"Here you go put these on," he said to Pete.

"We'll leave you to get dressed," Amanda said to her son knowing that he would be really embarrassed otherwise just like anyone would be.

Everyone left the room and Pete gently and carefully got out of bed.  For a moment he swayed as dizziness brought on by the tiredness rippled through his head.  He fought it down and picked up the uniform.

It took him a minute to actually find out how to undo the things fastener – it wasn't a zip or a Velcro fastening like he was used to but somekind of molecular bonding strip.  But eventually he found the right place to touch and the two sides of the binder split from each other and he was able to pull the uniform on.  It fit tightly but not so tight that it impeded movement in anyway.

Then he sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled on the tough composite combat boots that were part of the uniform.  As with the uniform they didn't have conventional fastenings – Pete supposed that was because N'Tek field agents didn't want to have to stop in middle of doing something like bashing terrorists to have to do things like tying laces up.  Instead the tops of the boots were lined with a molecular fastening ring like the uniform was.  Pressing the tops of the boots made them bond seamlessly to the leg of the uniform.

Then he stood up and immediately collapsed to the floor as his legs refused to take his weight.  Closing his eyes Pete took a number of deep breaths gathering as much energy as he could together before opening his eyes again and once more trying to stand up.  Again he wasn't able to stand his muscles were just too weak to support him now.  _Well Pete old boy I guess you have no alternative,_ he thought.

"Help," he called weakly hoping someone would hear.  Sure enough Max heard and came back into the room followed by Jacob, everyone else had already gone to the transphasic generator control room.

Noticing his friend sprawled on the floor unable to stand through lack of energy Max felt a twinge of sympathy.  He'd been in that position enough times in the last two and a half years to know how helpless Pete would be feeling.  Quickly he turned to Jacob.

"There's a wheelchair over there," he said gesturing to a chair beside a medical equipment storage cabinet.  "Go and get it I can carry Pete."  Jacob nodded reluctantly and went to do what Max instructed.  Knowing what he knew now about Max/Josh's enhanced strength he didn't doubt that Max would be able to pick the one hundred and eighty pound Pete up as if he weighed next to nothing.  Whereas he would struggle to lift his son and would probably do his back in trying to lift him.

Max squatted down besides Pete.

"It's okay Pete," he said reassuringly to his friend who'd managed to flip himself over onto his back.  Pete's skin was a shine of moisture from the fever he'd begun to run as a result of being so low on T-juice.  "Don't struggle."

"I don't think I can even move," Pete replied his voice thin and weak.  "Let alone put up a fight that you couldn't overcome Max."

"True," Max replied slipping his arms under Pete's back and legs.  Carefully he picked Pete up and carried him over to the wheelchair where Jacob was waiting eying his son with rising concern.  With incredible gentleness that belied his size Max gently placed Pete in the wheelchair.  Pete was able to muster enough strength to at least sit up and put his feet on the footpads.  "This way," Max said to Jacob as the older man began to push the wheelchair.

Pete was barely conscious by the time they reached the transphasic generator chamber.  He could feel himself fading away, could feel the darkness reaching up to envelop him in its embrace again.  This time he fought against it with every ounce of strength that he had – but he was steadily loosing the battle.  _Is this what Josh feels every time he runs low on transphasic power,_ he thought, _how does he cope with it?_

After a moment Pete felt himself being picked up again and moved into a seat in the centre of a platform that floated in mid air.

"Pete I know this is going to hurt," Max said softly into his ear.  "Don't be afraid to cry out okay.  It'll only hurt this time I promise.  Okay?"

"Okay," he replied mustering the strength to speak only just.  Looking around with his eyes only Pete was able to see that he was in the centre of a large circular chamber.  Thick metal rings were visible and beyond them he could see somekind of projection units.  Looking up he could see another projection unit that looked slightly different to the others.  He abruptly heard a humming sound as the gantry was withdrawn.  He relaxed back in the chair and waited for the next part of the regeneration procedure to start.

He didn't have to wait long.  A few moments after Max and dad left he heard the humming of powerful motors.  Pete watched as the massive metal rings began to move.  Slowly at first but with ever increasing speed.  Some of the projectors around the sides of the room came on sending blue fans of energy at the rings as the speed increased until the air itself seemed to be bending and flexing with the motion of the rings.  Rippling arcs of yellow-green energy appeared on the rings glowing brighter and brighter and being transferred somehow to the massive energy projector at the top of the chamber.  Looking up Pete saw a shimmering yellow-green nimbus of transphasic power glow brighter and brighter at the tip of the projector as the power built.

Then with the suddenness of a bursting dam the massive top projector discharged sending a thick shaft of yellow-green energy straight down onto Pete.

Blinding, searing pain burst across his body as the beam impacted him.  It was as almost as bad as the pain the transformation into Dreadnought had caused.  His face contorting in agony Pete screamed at the top of his lungs.  Max hadn't been kidding when he said that this hurt like hell.  Still Pete injured it with a stoicism that he had never thought himself capable of only crying out when the bursts of pain caused by the pulsating energy beam became to great for him to bear and a scream was ripped from his lungs.

After what seemed like an eternity the energy beam cut off and the motion of the rings began to decrease as the motors powering them were reversed automatically by the computer that regulated the generator.  Pete slumped back in relief and gratefully gave himself up to the darkness.

*****

Up in the transphasic generator control room Max sighed in relief as the regeneration cycle concluded and Pete's screams stopped.  Hearing Pete scream like that was almost like hearing an echo of himself two and a half years ago during his own first recharge.  It had sent a shiver down his spine and he'd held onto Laura's hand quiet tightly during the recharge.

Now looking down on the chamber through the thick glass windows he saw Pete slumped unconscious in the central chair as the generation rings slowed to a halt and the energy projectors shut down.  

Looking at his friend dressed as he was in an N'Tek jumpsuit Max couldn't help but wonder if he would see Pete in one more often.  Would Pete want to become an agent after this?  Would he adopt another appearance and identity like he'd adopted the persona of Max Steel if he did decide to become an agent.  Pete would probably be a good agent, he had handled himself reasonably well during that encounter with Vitriol in Alaska a few months back.  Pete could probably make it as an agent if he passed Rachel's demanding and comprehensive training programme which wouldn't be easy as the beautiful, sophisticated British woman was a very demanding taskmaster.  Only time would tell.

"Extend the gantry Berto," he abruptly heard Jefferson say.  "Let's get Pete out of there."

*****

Infirmary 

**Half Hour Later**

Pete regained consciousness to find himself once more laid out on a comfortable bed in the medical centre.  The terrible tiredness was gone – though he was still tired it was a more normal, natural tiredness that was easily explained by the fact that it was getting close on to midnight according to the digital clock on the far wall.  Despite being tired he also felt strong.  In fact he felt better than he had ever felt in his life before.  In its own way it was almost as frightening as the tiredness and weakness had been.

"Welcome back sleeping beauty," Amanda said teasingly from her seat as she saw her son open his eyes again.  She was very glad to see him awake again and to see that their was no pain in his eyes.  His screams during the regeneration procedure had struck to the very core of her soul and caused both her and Jacob considerable distress.  They were both relieved that Pete would only have to bear that pain once.  According to Berto, Yevshenko and Max recharges after the first one were not painful just mildly uncomfortable.

"Hi mom," Pete replied.

"How are you feeling son," Jacob asked from his own seat.

"Better.  The tiredness is gone for the most part.  What's left can easily be attributed to it being so late at night.  Aside from that little bit I feel fantastic.  In fact I feel stronger than I've ever felt in my life."

"You'll soon get used to that," Max said coming into the room with Laura in tow.

"Does it always feel this way?" Pete asked his friend.

"Yes it always does.  Though the high feeling fades after a couple of hours.  The trick in the meantime is not to let it go to your head.  We're not invincible Pete, were close but not quiet.  Always remember that."

"I will.  I'm glad this feeling will fade its almost as frightening as the tiredness."

"It is that," Max agreed.  He felt a faint nudge in his side from Laura.  "We came to say goodnight Pete," he said.  "Both me and Laura are shattered and are going to go home."

"That sounds like a good idea," Pete said hoping to sleep in his own bed tonight, and hope he didn't have nightmares about what he'd done while he'd been Dreadnought.

"I'm afraid sleeping in your own bed is not going to be a luxury you or us will have tonight," Jacob told his son.  "Dr Yevshenko wants to keep you here tonight for observation just to make sure your okay before releasing you in the morning."

"Fair enough," Pete replied knowing it would be useless to argue.  In his experience doctors were impossible to shift on such things when they'd made their minds up.  "Are you staying tonight?"

"Obviously," Amanda replied.  "We'll be sleeping in one of the other rooms."

"Okay."

"Goodnight Pete," Max said softly holding out his hand.  Pete took it and they shook.

"Goodnight Max," Pete replied.  "Goodnight Laura."

"Goodnight Pete," Laura replied leaning forward and giving Pete a kiss on the cheek.  With that Max and Laura turned and left the room heading for the car park some eighteen levels above them.  Pete watched them leave then yawned as sleep beckoned to him as well.

"We should go to bed ourselves," Jacob said standing up.  "Goodnight Pete."  
  


"Goodnight dad.  Goodnight mom," Pete said softly through another yawn.

"Goodnight Pete," Amanda said standing up herself.  "Sleep well."

"I can but hope," Pete replied softly.  Amanda and Jacob traded a glance of concern.  They knew what Pete meant by that.  He was afraid that he was going to have a nightmare about what he'd been through.  Such things were inevitable – at least until Pete came fully to terms with it.

"Goodnight," Amanda tossed back over her shoulder as she and her husband left the room.  Pete watched them go as well before sighing, making himself comfortable on the bed and closing his eyes.  Within seconds he had slipped into a deep dreamless sleep.


	13. A Little Talk

****

Chapter Thirteen: A Little Talk

Costas Residence

Two Weeks Later

Pete Costas awoke with a gasp his skin awash with sweat and giving off the characteristic scent of fear and panic. _The dream again,_ he thought breathing deeply in an effort to calm down. He'd been having the same dream every night for the last two weeks, the nightmare was so regular that he was often frightened to go to sleep - only going to bed when he was too tired to stay up anymore. He could only remember bits and peaces of the dream - trying to run down a dark corridor being chased by an angry mob of people intent on killing him, people whose faces he all knew, they were the people Dreadnought had killed, turning a corner and coming face to face with a mirror - but not seeing himself. Instead he always saw Dreadnought staring back at him, right before the living weapon raised its plasma cannon and fired at him. He always awoke at that point. _Will it ever stop,_ he thought, _will they ever leave me alone._

According to Doctor Alice Roberts - one of N'Tek's battery of psychologists - who was helping him come to terms with what had happened to him the dreams would eventually stop. But first he had to forgive himself for what he had done while he had been Dreadnought. And he just didn't know if he could do that. Every time he tried to put it behind him he always saw visions of what he'd done - visions of disintegrating security guards and exploding police cruisers. The visions were so horrible that he always ran away from them, unable to face it, unable to face the guilt or to accept that he was as much a victim of Joseph Karland as those Dreadnought had killed.

Abruptly the sound of footsteps caught his attention, the footsteps of someone treading lightly on the floorboards as they moved along the landing outside his bedroom door before going downstairs. Inclining his head in a listening posture Pete focused on the sound trying to identify which of his parents it was. Instantly the sound seemed to amply and then Pete knew who it was. The footfalls although being deliberately light so as not to wake anyone had a distinctive heaviness to them. _Dad must either be getting ready for work or has insomnia again,_ he thought bringing his hearing back down to normal and then smiling slightly to himself. He was getting better at learning to control the nanotech powers he now had as a result of the max probes being inside him as they were with Josh. He wasn't completely there yet not by a long shot, just yesterday he'd accidentally yanked the kitchen door off its hinges but he was getting there. Josh was a big help when it came to learning control - after all he'd been through it himself. Josh had taught him a number of mental analogies to use for controlling his enhanced senses and strength. For example with his hearing Josh had taught him to imagine a volume control in his head - and it worked. Pete didn't have to worry about learning control over the more complex nanotech abilities like the shape shifting thing Josh did when he wanted _or_ needed to be Max, or stealth and turbo modes. Berto had seen to that by giving him a modified biolink that would just monitor his T-juice levels and allow communication but not allow access to the more complex nanotech abilities - Berto had specifically disabled those controls and they could only be released by an access code that only he, Jefferson and Josh had. Pete could feel that he had those abilities inside him but he was grateful at the moment that he didn't have to worry about learning to control them as well. He had enough on his plate dealing with everything else.

After a moment Pete sighed, threw the bedclothes off himself and climbed out of bed. He had no chance of getting back to sleep anyway, not at this time in the morning so he might as well get up. Moving quietly he walked over to the door that led to the small en suite bathroom shared by both his parents room and his own. He'd have a quick wash before going back into his room, getting his dressing gown on and going downstairs.

*****

Jacob Costas looked up from his bowl of cereal as he heard someone coming down the stairs. Normally he was the only one up so early in the morning, though it wasn't unknown for Amanda to sometimes wake up just after him. Except on a Sunday like it was today - he was only up so early today because this afternoon he was due to jet off to a technology fair in London. He didn't really want to go what with Pete still suffering nightmares and emotional distress about everything he'd been through, he wanted to be here for his son but he had no choice but to go. He was the head of marketing for Pacific Dynamic Telecommunications he had no choice but to go to these technology and trade fairs.

Whoever was coming downstairs had reached the base of the steps and was coming towards the kitchen. Jacob wondered who it could be - had he woken Amanda despite his attempt to be quiet when he had gotten out of bed, or could it be Pete. It wouldn't be the first time in the last fortnight that Pete had awoken earlier than normal. Sometimes he awoke because of his nightmares other times external sounds picked up by his enhanced hearing woke him up. Like two nights ago when a racoon had knocked the rubbish bin over making an almighty crash in the middle of the night.

A moment later Pete came into the kitchen. Jacob smiled warmly at his son.

"Good morning Pete. Did I wake you?"

"Morning dad. No you didn't wake me. I was awake already," Pete replied moving over to the coffee machine which had just finished percolating a pot of coffee. Taking a mug Pete set about pouring himself some coffee while Jacob nodded in understanding.

"You had the dream again," Jacob questioned.

"Yes. I wish they'd go away," Pete said in a moaning tone. "Then I might get a night of uninterrupted rest. Barring anymore racoon raids on the dustbins," he said the last part with humour in his tone while putting sugar in his coffee. Jacob laughed before taking another spoonful of cornflakes.

"Have you told Dr Roberts about your dreams?"

"Yes. She says that I need to forgive myself first."

"Pete you have nothing to forgive yourself for. From what I understand you had no control over what Dreadnought did."

"I know that up here," Pete tapped the side of his head before pointing at his heart, "but in here I cannot make myself believe it. Every time I try I remember things - things Dreadnought did, things that are too horrible to speak about."

"I'm no psychologist. In fact most of that psychobabble of theirs goes way over my head but it sounds to me that no matter how hard you find it your might have to speak about what happened, what you saw. Maybe that's the only way to break the dreams cycle." Sitting down opposite his father Pete looked thoughtful.

"Perhaps," he said guardedly. Jacob was grateful that Pete didn't seem to dismiss the idea out of hand. Had he been slowly coming to the same conclusion.

"Your on a long hard road son," Jacob added softly. "I know that this is nothing like exercise but perhaps you should set yourself goals over the short, medium and long term just like your do with a training program?"

"That might be a good idea," Pete replied he hadn't really thought about it like that. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do in the long run - especially with all his new abilities and the responsibility that came with them. Maybe he would at some point decide that he wanted to be a secret agent just like Josh and Berto. He vividly remembered his last experience in that world when he'd hidden himself on the Hawk as it was taking Max to Alaska to rescue some scientists kidnapped by a blond laser-firing hothead named Vitriol. Though he'd been scared out of his wit's most of the time - especially when he was being pursued by what had to be the most persistent polar bear in the world - he'd also been exhilarated by the whole experience. Maybe he'd eventually decide that he wanted to spend more time in that world.

"What are you thinking about," Jacob asked noticing the look in his sons eyes.

"Nothing." The last thing he wanted to do was tell his parents about his prior two experiences in the world of international espionage/counter-terrorism. He'd been sworn to secrecy and he'd kept that vow despite everything. And he would continue to keep it. Until he felt the time was right to tell his parents about those experiences.

"Good. For a moment there I thought you were considering becoming an agent yourself." Pete did smile slightly at that, a strange smile that set alarm bells ringing in Jacobs head. "Don't tell me you were?"

"I have thought about it," Pete admitted. "But that would be in the future. Plus I'd want to know what you thought about it."

Jacob had to think about that before answering.

"I cannot speak for your mother Pete but if you really want to be an agent then I'll support your decision," he said after thinking it through. "What you choose to do with your life is your choice my son your choice and your choice alone." Then a grin abruptly appeared on his fathers face. "Besides any terrorists you met wouldn't necessarily know it was you, you could look like someone else."

"True," Pete replied knowing his father was referring to the max probes shape changing ability. "Still it would be a dangerous existence. I can understand why Josh loves it so much."

"That is true and I would still worry about you so would your mother. But nothing in this world is ever completely free from risk Pete. Even something as simple as walking down the street has its risks. But as I said at the end of the day the choice is yours Pete. We'll be proud of you whatever you decide." Pete smiled slightly at that and looked down at the mug of coffee he was occasionally sipping deep in thought.

After a couple of moments Jacob finished his breakfast and stood up before taking the empty bowl over to the sink and washing it. After he finished that he went back over to the chair he'd been sitting on and picked up his jacket. He was already in his work clothes and his case was packed and waiting in the hall along with his briefcase.

"I have to go now," he said to his still contemplative son. "We'll speak a little bit more about this when I come back from London if you want."

"I think I would like that," Pete replied. "Thanks dad."

"What are fathers for," Jacob replied and Pete heard the smile in his fathers voice. "I'll see you when I get back." Pete stood up from his seat and came up to his father.

"Bye dad," he said.

"Bye son. Look after your mother while I'm gone. And try not to yank any more doors off hinges." Pete laughed.

"I'll try. No promises." Jacob smiled at that and gave Pete a hug before turning and walking down the hall before picking up his case and brief case. A few moments later Pete heard the front door open and then close. Barely two minutes after that he heard his father's car start and pull away. Within seconds it was out of his hearing range unless he chose to increase his sensitivity and he didn't want to do that.

Sitting back down at the table Pete thought about some of what his father had said. He thought what his father had said about setting himself goals as he would in a training program was actually a good idea. A good short-term goal for example would be to master his new powers and a long-term goal could very well be to join N'Tek and become an agent. He would seriously have to think about it.


	14. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Jefferson Smith's Office N'Tek Headquarters, Three Months Later 

Jefferson Smith studied Pete Costas as he stood across from him.  Pete had asked to speak to him in private and Jefferson knew exactly what Pete had wanted to speak to him about.  He knew because Pete had discussed it with Josh a few days ago and Josh had given him a heads up warning of what was coming.  Sure enough as soon as Jefferson had activated his office's security isolation system Pete had asked if he could join the real N'Tek.

"Are you sure you want to do this Pete," he asked quietly.  "Once you enter this world there is no going back."

"I know," Pete replied.  "But I've thought about it a lot these last few months and it's what I want."

"And your parents?"

"They're behind me," Pete answered.  "Mom's not that enthusiastic but like dad she did say that it is my choice."

"I see.  Now why do you want to join."  Pete thought about his answer for a moment.  He had known to expect this question as Josh had told him what exactly to expect and that was only to get through the first hurdle to being accepted.  After his interview with Jefferson their were two more hurdles to get through one was a physical exam – which would be modified to take into account nanotech powers – and the other was a psychological assessment to determine if he had the right kind of personality to be an agent.

"Because it's the right thing to do," he said after a moment.  "I can feel that inside me I have the power to make a difference.  It wouldn't be right not to use it."

Listening to Pete Jefferson couldn't help but smile.  That was the same kind of argument that Josh had used on him when he asked to join the real N'Tek.  Though he could tell by looking straight at Pete that the words were Pete's not Josh's.  Though he knew that Pete and Josh had spoken about this issue a few days ago he also knew that much as he might personally want to Josh was to professional these days to actually give Pete any assistance in what to say at this interview.

Jefferson leaned back in his chair and considered what to do next.  He was personally inclined to grant Pete's request provided Pete had the right psychological profile.  Pete was certainly physically fit enough to be an agent nanotech enhancements aside.  Pete was both agile and strong though not quiet as strong as Josh for the simple reason that Josh had thirty pounds more muscle on him.  Jefferson didn't doubt that their would be no problem on the physical side it was now just a question of the psychological profile.

"I am inclined to grant your request Pete," he said after a moment and Pete sighed in relief.  He had been so afraid that Jeff would dismiss the notion out of hand as he had tried to do with Josh.  "As Josh has no doubt told you the next step from here is a physical and psychological evaluation by our personnel.  If you pass those then you will be passed into Rachel's care for basic training.  One thing I want to ask you is do you want another identity to use while here."

"I've already worked one out," Pete replied with a grin.  "When I spoke to Josh he deactivated that part of the inhibitor code that Berto put into this thing," he added as he made his biolink appear on his right wrist.  To make his point he pressed the morphing control and for only the second time felt a warm pulse of transphasic power travel up his body changing him as it went.

Jeff watched with detached interest as Pete's T-shirt and jeans turned into a grey and white tracksuit complete with hood.  Pete's hair changed from black to blond and his eyes from brown to grey.  The moustache and slight goatee beard that Pete liked to maintain disappeared and that combined with other slight alterations in the structure of his face made him look like a completely different person with only a slight resemblance to Pete Costas just like Max only bore a slight resemblance to Josh.

"Quiet handsome," Jeff commented.  "So what name have you chosen?"

"Robert," Pete replied with a smile.  "Robert Swift."

The End 


End file.
